BLACKBURN boss Mark Hughes insists Robbie Savage has the self-control to keep his emotions in check when he faces his former club Birmingham at Ewood tomorrow.

Savage is ready to go head-to-head with the Blues for the first time since he made his controversial move to Rovers in January.

And a hostile reception no doubt awaits the 30-year-old, both on and off the pitch, because the way he quit St Andrews left a bitter taste in the mouth as far as Birmingham and their supporters were concerned.

However, Hughes has no qualms about playing Savage tomorrow and he is adamant his £3 million signing will put the needs of the team before any personal vendettas.

The Rovers chief said: "Whenever you're up against your old club, you always look ahead to those fixtures and this one has been looming in the calendar for a while for Robbie.

"But it's here now, he's looking forward to it, and he understands the importance of the game from our point of view.

"It's a game that we want to win, we are on a decent run of form at the moment, it's three points at home, and we want to keep our home form going.

"We've had two wins here and a decent performance against Spurs as well so, overall, I'm reasonably pleased with our home form and I want to see us build on that."

Hughes was disappointed when Birmingham prevented Savage from playing in the last game between these two sides at St Andrews in April.

The Blues had inserted a clause in the deal which took Savage to Ewood that prevented him from playing in that fixture last season.

And despite Rovers' attempts to get it revoked, they refused to budge, which only increased the acrimony between the two clubs.

"I said at the time, I felt it was an opportunity missed," said Hughes.

"There was always going to be a lot of hype surrounding Robbie facing Birmingham, maybe not so much here but certainly going back to St Andrews.

"We'll get over one hurdle with the fact he will play against Birmingham for the first time tomorrow, but we still have to overcome the fact he hasn't been back to St Andrews yet and I just felt last season was a good opportunity to put all that to bed.

"But they didn't want to do that and, in the circumstances, we decided to go with it.

"In hindsight, maybe we should have just played him anyway."

Meanwhile, Hughes confirmed that Craig Bellamy will be fit to return tomorrow.

And David Thompson may also be in line for a place on the bench.