Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce has had unexpected backing following Blues' worst start to a Premiership season.

There seems little love lost between the rival camps at St Andrew's and Ewood Park, exacerbated by Robbie Savage's financially beneficial desertion of Blues for Blackburn Rovers in January.

* What do you think? Visit our messageboard and give us your opinion. *

But, following his side's 2-0 win over Bruce's men, Rovers boss Mark Hughes is adamant that his old Manchester United team-mate Bruce is a good enough manager to put things right.

"Steve has been in the Premier League a long time," said Hughes. "He knows what it takes to win games at this level.

"They're in a bit of a situation at the moment but, with the players he's got, I see no reason why he shouldn't get them out of it.

"There is a little bit of pressure possibly right now, but it very quickly disperses once you get back to winning ways."

Hughes knows from his own experiences last season - his Rovers side were bottom of the Premiership at this same stage a year ago - how quickly things can change. And he comforted Bruce by pointing out: "It only takes one win and three points on the board to settle everybody down. Given the experience Steve has, I'm sure he'll turn it round."

Having been publicly backed this week, Bruce is aware that his chairman David Gold's confidence might not necessarily be shared in the boardroom.

And, typically, he is not hiding from the truth.

"I've seen David Sullivan's comments," said Bruce. "And I can understand his frustration. He's as disappointed as we all are.

"We're in the mire and already the alarm bells are ringing, but we've got to be prepared for that."

Blues have picked up just six points from their first ten matches, to stand just two places off the bottom, occupying one of the Premiership's three relegation slots.

But, while it is still early days, that is a dramatic contrast to two seasons ago when Blues won three times as many in their first ten matches, their haul of 18 points taking them to fourth.

Their injury troubles since have been well chronicled, but it was the understandable general over reaction to that blistering start in the late summer and autumn of 2003 which, Bruce suggests, maybe explains their current problems.

"I always thought this would be a difficult season," he said, "because of the expectation level.

"In the past, my motto was always that we were hard to beat. In the last 16 months, I've gone away from that policy in trying to win more games, be a little more creative and compete at a different level, but we've found it really difficult.

"I've brought in better players individually, but we've been without some of our big name players for too long, and it's a team effort at the end of the day.

"It's a results business," he said. "And, if we don't get them, we all know the consequences."