BLACKBURN Rovers Gary Bowyer felt his side fully deserved their 2-1 home victory over in-form Fulham yesterday.

Ben Marshall and Jordan Rhodes were on target either side of half-time as Rovers ended a winless run in the Championship that stretched to five matches with a 2-0 defeat at Derby County in midweek.

Marshall opened the scoring in the 12th minute with his seventh goal of the season before Rhodes took his tally for the term up to 10 in the 61st minute.

Bowyer said: “Full credit to the players. I thought we done all right on Tuesday bar one or two bits so the players showed great confidence to bounce back and we thoroughly deserved it in the end.

“Was it a crucial game? I think crucial is a big word when there’s another 18 games to go.

“It was the next game of football so it was an opportunity to win the next game of football and we managed do it.

“We try and stay level here. It’s important that we do because outside of the dressing room I’m not sure anybody else does.

“Fulham have got a Premiership forward line, with Hugo Rodallega and they obviously paid £11m for Ross McCormack, so you always know you’re going to have your hands full.

“But I thought our defenders and our goalkeeper did ever so well against the threat and I thought Jay Spearing on his debut was terrific.

“At the same time, we showed the threat we have going forward. Ben Marshall took his goal ever so well, Chris Brown did an unbelievable job up there and made it very difficult for them, and Jordan does what Jordan does very well.

“We’re delighted he put his head on to a wonderful cross from Markus Olsson.”

Rovers had to see out a sustained period of pressure from Fulham, who were chasing their third straight Championship victory, after Ross McCormack halved the deficit in the 66th minute.

And Bowyer paid tribute to the home fans for helping them do that.

He said: “There’s always a time in a game when you need your supporters and you saw the effect their singing and chanting had on the players.

“I’m delighted for the supporters because they played a massive part in getting us three points.”

Cottagers boss Kit Symons, whose side had been unbeaten in their previous four games in all competitions, said: “It’s a case of we needed to take our chances. We created quite a few and had some good openings but you need to take them when they come along and that’s the way it can be sometimes.

“I’m very disappointed because I said to the players get what you deserve out of the game and I felt we did deserve something out of that game at least so to come away with nothing is disappointing.

“But we put in a good shift and I thought we played some really good football at times and created some good opportunities.

“Today was a tough one to take but it won’t dampen what we do and won’t dampen my enthusiasm or my belief in this group of players.”