PAUL Lambert admitted Blackburn Rovers only had themselves to blame as they lost 2-0 at home to new Championship leaders Hull City to stretch their winless league run to nine matches.

Rovers boss Lambert had warned his side before the game that the Tigers were at their most dangerous when playing on mistakes made by their opponents.

But his words fell on deaf ears as Tommy Spurr and Darragh Lenihan gave away possession in the lead-up to the quickfire goals Hull scored through their outstanding frontmen Abel Hernandez and Mo Diame.

There were still 27 minutes of normal time remaining when Diame struck yet, to the disappointment of a fed-up Ewood Park faithful who have witnessed just three wins at home all season, the contest petered out.

The defeat ended Rovers’ four-match unbeaten run in all competitions, banished the memory of their impressive performance at the Tigers’ title-rivals Middlesbrough, and left them just five points above the relegation places.

Lambert said: “There wasn’t much in the first half and neither team had done that much.

“So the disappointing thing for me is we had the ball twice and Hull have scored two goals. We secured possession and made wrong decisions when we had the ball.

“We told the lads when we showed them the video of Hull that they are very good at playing on your mistakes so you have to be extra careful with your passing. It’s something we didn’t take heed of.

“They’re a good side. The front two are a handful and they've still got a lot of Premier League players. You can see why they’re up there.

“But it doesn’t matter if you’re up against a top team or not, you want to take them on. We played ever so well last week against another top team but today I thought once the second goal went in, we looked far short.

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“You can’t play the way we did last week and then turn in that type of performance. It will drive you mad. We have to find a consistency level really quickly. We have to start winning games.”

Rovers’ preparations were rocked when captain Grant Hanley (shoulder) and Danny Graham (hamstring) failed fitness tests on the morning of the match before Hope Akpan fell ill in the warm-up.

“It was a nightmare,” said Lambert, who is hoping the trio will return for the crucial clash at home to Fulham on Tuesday.

“Losing three lads who played ever so well for us last week was a blow especially as it was the spine of our side in Grant and Danny. It was too risky to play them because we’ve got 11 games in 30-odd days.

“But we can’t use that as an excuse.”

Hull manager Steve Bruce cut a delighted figure after a seventh win in eight matches – and a first at Rovers in 30 years – moved his side two points clear at the summit.

Bruce said: “Blackburn had a hell of a performance last week against Middlesbrough so to dominate them as we did was excellent. We just needed the breakthrough.

“I thought we were playing within ourselves in the first half and wanted us to go and express ourselves and take the shackles off. We knew we had more in the tank and I thought in the second half we gave a very good performance where we could have scored three or four.

“That’s as good as we've played for a long time.”