AFTER Saturday's result and performance against Tottenham, Mark Hughes must be counting down the days to the transfer window opening.

Talk about a reality check after some vastly improved performances under the new manager in recent weeks.

January was always going to be a big month for Blackburn Rovers but now it's taken on even greater significance as the battle to avoid relegation hots up.

Looking at the performance against Spurs, I doubt if there's an area in the team that the manager wouldn't like to strengthen if he had the resources.

Brad Friedel still looks an excellent shot-stopper, and Barry Ferguson is a real diamond of a player in midfield.

But in every other area, there's an argument to say we could probably do better if we only had the finances.

What would we give right now for a really penetrative wide-man, for instance? Or another driving midfield player who can tackle? Or a striker who could guarantee you goals on a regular basis?

Unfortunately, budget restrictions mean Mark Hughes will be hard pressed to bring such players into the club.

Last January, we took a punt on Jonathan Stead and, thankfully, the young striker managed to surpass all expectations, but it's asking a lot of Hughes to expect him to come up with another gem like that on the cheap.

The board have promised to give Mark 'every spare penny' they've got to bring new players in - and that's all we can ask of them in this situation.

But I still don't envy the job the manager faces when it comes to January. In the meantime, Rovers must rediscover the kind of form they showed at Fulham 10 days ago.

There's no doubt Mark Hughes has got the players fitter and better organised but we still lack some penetration, guile and invention going forward.

We can learn a few lessons from Tottenham's performance at the weekend.

As badly as we played on the day, I thought Spurs deserved great credit for the way they approached the game.

They came to Ewood with the clear intention of taking home a point and anything else was viewed as a bonus.

Their players showed great discipline in the way they defended.

Ledley King, in particular, was imperious at the back and when you've got a solid defensive foundation like that, you're always likely to win if you can nick a goal at the other end.

Once Robbie Keane fired them ahead, Spurs then shut up shop with Martin Jol even throwing on an extra defender in the last 15 minutes with the sole intention of protecting what they'd got.

We now need to show similar resilience at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Iain Dowie has transformed Palace into a fit, well-drilled unit who scrap for every ball, but if we match them for effort, determination and organisation then our extra quality should shine through.