JUBILANT Rovers boss Graeme Souness has set his players a survival target of two more wins after last night's stirring victory over Southampton lifted the gloom at Ewood.

First half goals from Damien Duff and Yordi set Rovers on the way to a priceless 2-0 victory over the Saints -- a result which hauled them out of the bottom three after they had temporarily slipped back into the dropzone yesterday.

The win came as a massive boost to everyone connected with the club, especially in light of all the negative publicity surrounding Garry Flitcroft over the weekend.

But Souness was quick to stress his side are not out of the woods just yet, even though they now have a two-point cushion over third-bottom Ipswich with a game in hand.

"This was a big win for us but I believe we still need to win two more games," said Souness.

"We've got a home game against Chelsea next week and if we can win that then we'll be half way there so that's what we'll be focusing on now in training.

"But in the short term this was a big win for us because, psychologically, we are now back out of the bottom three and this was one of our games in hand.

"However, we'll only know how much it means in the long term at the end of the next month or so."

Desperate for a win after Saturday's unexpected set-back at Leicester, Souness insisted nothing less than a victory was acceptable going into last night's game against the Saints.

And his players responded to the battle-cry, roaring into a 2-0 lead after Duff and Yordi struck within the space of two first half minutes.

But the home fans in a bumper Bank Holiday crowd of 28,851 still had to endure a few anxious second half moments before Rovers finally wrapped up the points in what was their third straight home win.

"I thought we did well in the first half but then became nervous in the second half which is understandable given the circumstances.

"Although Southampton had a lot of the ball after the break they didn't really worry us too much and I don't remember Brad having to make a save.

"So it was a good night for us.

"We were always going to be nervous but I thought the support was great and the crowd really understands the importance of sticking together at this time."

Souness also singled out man-of-the-match Duff for special praise after the Republic of Ireland international shook off the effects of a bug to inspire Rovers to victory.

"Damien's had a bit of flu hanging around him since he came back from Ireland and he hasn't trained so we were on a wing and a prayer with him.

"But he did very well to get through the 90 minutes so we were delighted."