Blackburn boss Mark Hughes was left to lament lost opportunities as Rovers missed out on a place in Europe courtesy of their 4-1 defeat at the hands of Birmingham City.

Rovers went into the game knowing that a win could have been enough to see them back in the Intertoto Cup, but despite West Ham keeping their side of the bargain with a draw against Aston Villa, Hughes' side failed to fulfil their expectations going down to a Birmingham side that tasted relegation at the final whistle.

"We had an opportunity to get the job done today and we didn't, that's the galling thing," Hughes told the clubs official web site.

"We are disappointed with that situation because we haven't taken the opportunity that presented itself.

"The second goal is really poor from our point of view and we are really disappointed with that. We got ourselves back into the game and we were in the ascendancy, I've not seen the goal again in fairness but at the time I thought it was a poor goal to concede.

"Obviously we needed to win the game a draw really wasn't good enough so we had to throw on attack-minded players and when you do that sometimes you can get a little bit ragged and a little bit in-disciplined and as a consequence you can get exposed which happened in the end.

"Over all the season has been very good and we'll look to build on it next year."