STEVE Kean insists Blackburn Rovers side were full of ambition in their embarrassing 2-0 defeat at White Hart Lane – despite failing to have a shot all game.

Rovers became the first Premier League side since 2004 to fail to muster a shot on or off target for the whole 90 minutes as they tamely surrendered precious league points.

Despite the new 3-5-2 system leaving Rovers looking clueless going forward, with eight at the back at times, Kean was adamant the attacking intent was there.

He refused to change his formation, despite looking to most as though it was going horribly wrong, and defiantly insisted afterwards the shape of his side was “okay”.

He said: “I don’t think, if you are playing three versus two at the back and pushing your wide men on high, that is lacking ambition.

“Lacking ambition is if you come and play with one up. We were very ambitious, we wanted to play with two strikers, we wanted to keep Junior Hoilett and Yakubu up. I saw Norwich doing it here and they did it very well.

“They kept two up and asked questions of the central defenders of Tottenham. You have to give your strikers something to get after though. If you don’t give them any quality it is difficult for any front two.”

It was the first time this season that Rovers had experimented with the formation but Kean believes the lack of quality was what let them down.

“The first plan was to make sure we could frustrate Tottenham,” he said. “We wanted to continue to play two strikers up front.

“We were better in the second but when we did win possession and frustrate them, we were a little bit loose in possession and that had a big bearing on us not getting enough goal scoring opportunities.

“In the second half we improved on that. We wanted to keep a front two because it is easy coming here and playing with one up.

“We tried to have the three versus two at the back and have the extra man in midfield playing between Sandro and Modric.

“The shape was okay but when we did win the ball we were far too loose in our passing which had a big bearing on us not getting enough goal scoring opportunities.”

Rovers’ survival hopes look increasingly dim as they prepare for next Monday’s visit of Wigan knowing defeat could send them down – depending on earlier weekend results.

Kean insists he will continue to look at the ‘positives’ despite most people at White Hart Lane struggling to find any.

He said: “It is tough but we have to look at the positives. We need two monumental performances and two massive results. We have Wigan up next and if we beat them we go into the Chelsea game.

“We keep going, we keep battling. We have had many monumental performances this season. We have had some great home wins, back to back clean sheets and it is probably going to take that again.

“I have not lost trust and faith in the lads and we can keep going. I am not embarrassed, I am disappointed. We have been to many away games and tough away grounds and always carved lout a few chances.”