MARK Hughes was delighted with the performance of his side as Rovers overcame Wigan Athletic 3-1 at Ewood Park.

After Santa Cruz had given the home side the lead, Rovers then had to play the majority of the game a man down after Chris Samba had been red carded for bringing down Emile Heskey in the area.

It looked bad for Rovers when Marlon King levelled from the spot, but the players responded in fine style as Jason Roberts and then a second goal from Roque Santa Cruz put the game beyond the reach of Wigan.

"I thought we were excellent today, it was a really committed performance," said a delighted Mark Hughes on Radio Rovers after the game.

"I'm really pleased for the guys because they had to dig in in difficult circumstances and the decision to send Chrissy Samba off was a difficult one, at the time we thought he went down very very easily and it was a hard price to pay.

"But we re-organised ourselves, made sure that we had a decent shape, we kept two players up front because we were trying to win the game."

Whilst it was a solid team performance, Hughes singled out praise for the front men Roque Santa Cruz and Jason Roberts who not only grabbed the goals that sealed the victory but also for their all-round display.

"Although everybody played well today, I thought the key performances for us was the two guys up front because they occupied four players for us because of their effort and determination to chase things down and that helped us and the guys in the team responded to that, we were good value today.

"I thought the performance of the guys was exceptional, in the end we won it quite comfortably.

"The key thing for us today was the result and we've been able to put a performance in as well, we are very happy with today's proceedings."