MARK Hughes has passed his first big test as a Premiership manager after transforming the fortunes of Blackburn Rovers over the last three months.

Now the former Wales boss must prove his worth in the transfer market when the window opens in three days' time if he's to build on the excellent foundations that have been laid since September.

Hughes has been a manager for five years now but in all that time his transfer acumen has never been seriously put to the test - until now.

With the spectre of relegation still hovering over Ewood Park, this window is arguably the most important in the club's history and we're going into it with a manager who has only ever signed one player in his life.

But the way Hughes has gone about his business so far, I'm quietly confident he will sign the players who can make an impact over the second half of the season.

We've already made a bid for Birmingham's Robbie Savage and he's a player I rate highly.

Savage's commitment, desire and sheer will to win would add steel in the engine room but if I'm being honest, I think there's other areas of the team that are in more urgent need of strengthening first.

The main priority, as I see it, is to increase the amount of goals in the side.

At the moment, Barry Ferguson is capable of weighing in with his fair share from midfield and Paul Dickov continues to do an amazing job for us up front.

But other than that, there's not a lot of goals in the team and I'd be looking to bring someone in who could make a difference for us in the final third.

It's only a few weeks ago we were also talking about shoring up the Premiership's leakiest defence but Mark seems to have addressed that problem over the last month or so.

Defending is all about organisation. Every player in your side becomes a defender when you haven't got the ball and the way the team is defending at the moment has given us a great base on which to get results.

When was the last time we kept four clean sheets in six games?

Keeping things tight at the back is a great habit to get into and, first and foremost, Mark has made Rovers a tough side to beat.

Nevertheless, it would appear he's still not entirely satisfied with Rovers' new defensive resolve, judging by his attempts to bring Aaron Mokoena and Ryan Nelsen to the club.

I've got to admit I don't know much about either player but it's clear that Mark is planning for the future, rather than just the short term.

He's well aware that Craig Short and Lorenzo Amoruso are not getting any younger.

They're both at that stage in their careers where they're prone to picking up niggling injuries.

The recruitment of a younger, more youthful defender is therefore a necessity, if not now then certainly in the summer when Short is likely to retire.

Ideally, I'd love to see us sign a young, dominant, powerful and noisy central defender, someone who can take charge of situations and organise things at the back.

Sadly, those players are few and far between in the modern game but Mokoena sounds like he could have promise and at 24, he's certainly the right age.

Whatever happens over the next few weeks, it's going to be fascinating to see how Mark fares in the transfer market.

He'll be delighted with how things have gone so far at Blackburn.

I think he's shown a huge amount of character since he replaced Graeme Souness in September.

Some people would have panicked in his situation, especially after the back-to-back 4-0 defeats against Middlesbrough and Chelsea in October.

But he's made the best out of what he had and Rovers are now fitter, stronger and better organised than when he first took over.

On top of that, he's also managed to instill a mental toughness in his players and a determination not to get beat.

There's still things he can work on, of course. I'd like to see us score more goals from set-pieces, for example.

That can be a huge source of goals over the course of a season and we simply don't make the most of those situations.

We need to be more inventive at free kicks and corners and that's something Mark will no doubt address on the training ground at some point during the second half of the campaign.

For now, though, I've got nothing but praise for the job he is doing.

Rovers were in mess when he first took over but now they've lost just once in 10 games and they're no longer a soft touch.

With one or two shrewd additions over the next few weeks, 2005 could be a year to remember for all the right reasons.