JUBILANT Blackburn boss Graeme Souness last night breathed a huge sigh of relief after Rovers boosted their survival hopes with a vital victory over Aston Villa at Ewood.

Rovers won at home in the Premiership for only the second time since mid-October after expertly taken goals from David Dunn, Damien Duff and Andy Cole secured a priceless 3-0 triumph.

And, with fellow strugglers Bolton and Derby also losing 1-0 at Sunderland and Arsenal respectively, Rovers are now within striking distance of a posse of clubs at the bottom of the table -- prompting Souness to say 'Our destiny is now in our own hands.'

"I still believe it's what we do that's the most important thing," said the Rovers boss.

"Our destiny is now in our own hands which is all you can ask for at this stage in the season.

"We now have a home game next Wednesday against Ipswich which is as vital as last night's game was.

"But in saying all that, we are still only just over two thirds of the way through the season which means there's still virtually a third to go.

"So there's going to be lots of twists and turns before anything is resolved."

Four points adrift of the safety zone before last night's game, Rovers were desperate for a victory to ease the pressure at the bottom.

And Dunn ensured they made the perfect start by firing home a brilliant opener in the seventh minute before Duff and Cole then settled the nerves with a goal apiece in the last five minutes.

"It was a good first half performance but then I thought we became nervous," said Souness

"Villa changed things around at half time and it worked for them because that put us on the back foot.

"But I think that was down to us being nervous so when we got our second goal, it came as a big relief.

"And Andy Cole's third was then the icing on the cake for us.

"Overall, though, I thought we deserved to win it."

Despite Souness's obvious delight at what was only Rovers' second win in 10 league games, he still called on his players to become more ruthless in front of goal, howver, after a succession of chances went begging on the night which made for a tense finale.

"I think this season has been a big learning curve for us so, hopefully, we have learnt from where we've gone wrong," reflected Souness.

"You are never going to dominate games at this level so we've got to learn to start killing teams off.

"In order to be in the top 10, you've got to be solid and difficult to play against and we are not very good at that at this moment in time.

"Nevertheless, I'm still delighted we've got three points but I'd be happier if we didn't play quite as much football sometimes and nicked games instead."