BLACKBURN Rovers manager Mark Hughes has backed his players to end Manchester City's perfect home record at Eastlands tonight.

Sven Goran Eriksson's Blues have been invincible on home turf in the Premier League so far this season, winning nine out of nine to soar up to fourth position in the table.

But, after being encouraged by Sunday's morale-boosting performance against Chelsea at Ewood Park, when Rovers were unlucky to lose to a solitary strike from Joe Cole, Hughes is tipping his players to end City's winning streak in front of the Sky cameras this evening.

The Rovers chief, who masterminded a 1-0 win over City at Ewood earlier in the season, said: "City have got outstanding home form of late but that run has to come to an end at some point, so why can't it be us?

"We caused problems for a good Chelsea team (on Sunday), and we'll cause problems for a good Manchester City side.

"We've had a decent record against them in the recent seasons, and that will stand us in good stead.

"I just think the belief we'll get from the performance against Chelsea will help us.

"We know that we are trying to do the things that we work on in the right way, and the players are working hard, so I feel it's only a matter of time before this run comes to an end, and we start picking up points again."

After four straight defeats in December, Hughes knows it's imperative Rovers pick something up at Eastlands tonight, against a City side that also has ambitions of finishing in the top six.

A win for Eriksson's men would see them open up a yawning 11-point gap on Rovers in the battle for European places.

However, under Hughes, Rovers have tended to do well over Christmas in the past, and the manager now hopes that tradition will continue, with his side facing City, Derby County and Sunderland over the course of the next seven days.

"The Christmas period, more often than not, has been decent for us," said Hughes.

"We went up against Chelsea (on Sunday), which was always going to be difficult fixture for us, but there are other games coming up where we feel we've got a decent chance of picking some points up.

"And the sooner we start doing that, the better."

Missing Stephen Warnock and Robbie Savage through suspension, Hughes will have to shuffle his pack once again at Eastlands.

However, the Rovers boss is convinced he has the resources needed to cope with a punishing schedule.

He added: "It's difficult because it's more disruption to the back four again, so we are going to have to compensate for that.

"But as I've said before, I think the squad is strong enough and I still believe that.

"That was illustrated by the good performance of Zurab Khizanishvili, who came in against Chelsea and really excelled.

"So we'll use the squad again and, hopefully, we'll be on the front foot and get points again."