CRAIG Short believes Rovers are now just one more win from safety following Wednesday night's battling 0-0 draw with Chelsea at Ewood.

The veteran defender was magnificent at the heart of the Blackburn defence as he and Henning Berg expertly snuffed out the threat posed by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnsen.

And with three points now separating Rovers and third-bottom Ipswich, the former Everton centre-back believes just one more victory will guarantee their place in the top-flight next season.

"Mathematically, another win wouldn't see us safe but I think one more victory will do it because that would take us to 39 points," said Short.

"We've now got Middlesbrough away a week on Saturday and they play Arsenal on the Sunday so whatever happens that weekend they can't go above us, which makes a big difference, and we'd still have a game in hand.

"But we don't want to be looking over our shoulders relying on other teams -- we want to secure the points to stay up ourselves."

Short was particularly pleased to see Rovers chalk up their second successive clean-sheet, especially against such a potent front pair in Gudjohnsen and Hasselbaink.

"With a strike-force like the one they have, it's always good to keep a clean sheet," added the Rovers defender.

"We were very determined to get one, especially given the fact we didn't have so many defenders in the side apart from the four of us at the back.

"And apart from a few skirmishes late on when they switched Zola more centrally, I thought we handled them very well.

"I was particularly pleased when they took Gudjohnsen off. They didn't start him down there, they only brought him on in the second half.

"But me and Henning both think he's the hardest to play against of all their three strikers.

"Zola goes deep when he goes in the middle, Jimmy's strong and quick and he shoots from anywhere.

"But Gudjohnsen is the most difficult to pick up of the lot because if you go short with him he's then very quick to get in behind you."