DEFENDER Stephen Warnock has admitted he is excited about joining Mark Hughes' Blackburn Rovers revolution.

Warnock, who arrived at Ewood on a three-and-a-half-year deal after Rovers paid an undisclosed sum for his services last night, has been on the fringes at Anfield after making his debut for the Reds in August 2004, following loan spells at Bradford and Coventry.

But the 25-year-old said he was delighted to have finally signed on the dotted line after a rather protracted transfer.

"It has been a long time waiting to happen but I'm very pleased to be here," he said.

"I spoke to the manager and he sold the club to me, though he didn't really have to say much as I was more than happy to come here and play for him, I'm really excited about it.

"You look at Blackburn last year and they were fantastic getting into Europe and, speaking to the manager, that is his aim again.

"That is what I want to be doing, playing in the Premier League and playing European football.

"Blackburn are on a great run at the moment and I understand that it will be a challenge to get in the team, I'm not expecting to come here and walk straight into the team, I know I'm going to have to work hard and prove to the manager why he has bought me."

And Rovers boss Mark Hughes added that he felt Warnock, who will not be eligible for tonight's game, has the quality to become one of the Premiership's top defenders.

He said: "He meets the criteria for a Blackburn player. He's young, he's hungry and he's a very good player.

""I just feel he's a young man and he's really hungry to establish himself as one of the top Premier League defenders and if he progresses here, and there's no reason why he can't, then he can aspire to that.

"I think he's at a stage in his career where I think he wants to play regular Premiership football and that was the frustration for him.

"He would like to think he has that opportunity here.

"He knows he's coming to a club that's going in the right direction, a top 10 club.

"He's leaving a top club to come to a top club and that'll be the attraction for him."

And Hughes was doubly delighted to have finally landed his man after losing Andre Ooijer, who has come through an operation to repair the damage to his fibula and ligaments suffered against Manchester City on Saturday, and Lucas Neill who has now joined West Ham for an undisclosed fee.

Warnock is eligible to play in the FA Cup and, subject to clarification, should be allowed to play in Rovers' UEFA Cup fixture against Bayer Leverkusen as each team is allowed to register one player who has played in a different European competition.

With Neill having signed for the Hammers, Hughes was also keen to put that transfer saga behind him and concentrate on the chase for honours on three fronts.

"We all need to move on," he said. "In fairness to Lucas, I thought he did very well for us to keep his focus.

"When the interest was shown from Liverpool in the last window he's been able to keep his focus right to this window.

"I made the decision that it would be very difficult to get through this window and he's got the move that he wanted and that's why the decision was made."