RYAN Nelsen has regrets over the way Blackburn Rovers ended their 2007/08 campaign, but would have taken a seventh place finish if available at the beginning of the season.

Rovers went into their final Barclays Premier League match of the season still with a shout of a place in Europe, but a disappointing 4-1 defeat at the hands of relegated Birmingham meant the season ended on a sour note as Mark Hughes' side missed out on an Intertoto Cup place.

"If you look at the beginning of the season and you look at what other clubs have spent we would have been tempted to take a seventh place finish," said the Rovers captain.

"But it was an extremely disappointing way to end the season because in that second half I thought there was only going to be one team that was going to win the game because Birmingham didn't touch the ball for the first 25-30 minutes of that half.

"And then we concede a stupid soft goal and it became 2-1 we took unnecessary risks and we gambled and sometimes it backfires on you.

"We probably pushed forward too much, guys made runs that probably weren't on, but you had to take those risks to secure the win and when it didn't come off it was the cavalry against us at the back.

"We tried to give it a go, but it was disappointing that in the end we threw it away."