BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness has set his beleaguered troops a survival target of five wins as they battle to save themselves from the drop.

Saturday's 2-0 defeat against Fulham at Craven Cottage, combined with Bolton's victory over West Ham at the Reebok, saw Rovers drop into the bottom three for the first time this season.

And Souness now believes his crisis-torn side need to win virtually half of their 12 remaining games to stay up -- a challenge he insists is still well within their capabilities.

He said: "I think we've got to win another five games at least and maybe draw a couple as well but that's not beyond us.

"I believe the team I've got now is a far better one than I had at Southampton when we survived in a similar situation, but we've just got to show the same battling qualities as that team did.

"I'm aware of the danger we are in but the alarm bells aren't ringing in my head just yet because I think we are very close to being a good team who can more than hold their own in this league. We are missing something somewhere but until the heads went down when it went to 2-0, we were a match for Fulham and we've been a match for most teams in this league all season.

"Where we have let ourselves down is we don't sense danger and don't see it coming. That's a big part of being a great player and it's something we must improve on quickly."

Rovers were left to rue two chances in the opening 18 minutes when Andy Cole and Henning Berg both struck the woodwork before Fulham went on to wrap up the points.

"We started very well and Andy's chance was a great one. He did everything right but maybe hit it too well," said Souness.

"On another day they go in or it hits the keeper on the back of the head and bobbles over the line but when you are where we are, that doesn't happen for you.

"Then, with the second one, I think it hit Van Der Sar rather him saving it, so if we'd gone in front, it would then have been a very different game because we were bossing it at that point."

Now Rovers face a huge test of character over the remaining three months of the season with the situation likely to get worse before it gets better.

But Souness hopes players like Andy Cole will rise to the challenge and show what they are made of.

"We expected to move up the table whether we had Andy or not and he'll be as frustrated as anyone, maybe even more, because he's used to winning all the time," added the Rovers boss.

"So this is a little test for him.

"But he's a top player and to be a top player you have to have character."

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