JUBILANT Blackburn boss Graeme Souness today saluted his Premiership heroes after they secured their top-flight status over the weekend.

And Souness has vowed to bring in the signings necessary to transform Rovers into a top 10 force next year.

Manchester United's 1-0 win over Ipswich on Saturday night ensured Ewood Park will once again stage Premiership football next season.

And Rovers then celebrated their survival in style with a second successive away win at Everton yesterday to put the icing on the cake.

That result fired the Worthington Cup winners up to the heady heights of 12th in the table with a game in hand on most of their rivals.

And if they take maximum points from their two remaining games against Liverpool and Fulham they could end up finishing the campaign in a highly creditable ninth place.

However, Souness is not about to rest on his laurels and he's already targeted the players required to turn Rovers into a force in Europe next term.

"It's been a great 12 months," said the cock-a-hoop Ewood chief.

"We're staying up, we've qualified for Europe, we've won a trophy and I also feel we've played some very good football along the way, too.

"So I've got to be delighted with what we've achieved considering it's our first season back in the top-flight.

"Having said that, I still think we've underachieved.

"If you look at the teams below us, we've taken nothing off Sunderland, nothing off Derby and just one point off Leicester.

"So give us even half the points from those games, which you think you'd get in a normal season, and we'd be sitting in a very different position and we wouldn't have been in the relegation zone over the last two months.

"But all credit to the players, they've held their nerve, still played their football and managed to dig themselves out of it."

Now Souness and the board will sit down and draw up their plans for next season at a board meeting later this week.

And the Rovers boss is ready to splash the cash in the summer as he looks for the players necessary to take the club onto the next level.

"We feel we've got some young players who are only going to get better and we are also looking to add to the squad," said Souness.

"Every manager would love to go out and strengthen but what we are looking to do is buy players who have been at this level for a number of years and have proved they can do it at this level.

"That kind of player won't come cheap because we've already got some good players in our team and the ones who are going to improve us are going to cost a lot of money.

"But we can't afford to stand still."

One of the names on his shopping list could be Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke.

The Trinidad and Tobago star has the track record Souness craves and he could be available for a knock-down £4 million.

"He's a name that's been mentioned but it's gone nothing further than that at this stage," said Souness.

Meanwhile, a goal from Yorke's former Old Trafford strike-partner Andy Cole secured a 2-1 win at Goodison yesterday but Souness admitted it wasn't a vintage team performance.

"Obviously, after Saturday we knew we were safe so what bearing that had on yesterday I don't know.

"I thought the first half was a miserable affair between two teams who didn't want to win it.

"But in the second half, we were a bit more aggressive, ran around a bit more, had the best of the chances, got the two goals and I thought we deserved to win it in the end."

Now Rovers have two games left and Souness wants his side to finish the season with a flourish.

"There's still plenty of things left to play for. We've got two games left -- against Liverpool and Fulham -- and we want to take something from both of those games."