Blackburn's impressive away form in the Premiership continued with a deserved 1-1 draw at Aston Villa.

It could have been even better for the Ewood Park outfit had Matt Derbyshire not seen his first half penalty saved by Scott Carson.

The visitors finally took the lead in the 68th minute through leading scorer Roque Santa Cruz with his 15th goal of the campaign.

Three points would have seen Rovers move level with Villa in the league as both teams battle it out for a European place, but within five minutes the home side had restored parity as Ashley Young scored direct from a free kick.

Blackburn are now unbeaten in six Premiership games and move up to 8th in the table.

Rovers boss Mark Hughes said: "Although this hasn't been a happy hunting ground for us, and beforehand we would probably have taken a point, I thought we deserved all three.

"We changed our shape and system to try and counteract their threat while creating an attacking threat of our own and it worked well.

"There were some big performances individually, many of them from players who were carrying knocks and slight injuries.

We've played twelve Premier League away games now and lost only twice.

"When you consider that one of those was at Old Trafford it shows how well we have done on our travels. We need to replicate that sort of return at home and we'll be looking to do so against Everton next weekend.

"There was much to be pleased about in our performance, and the way David Bentley and David Dunn worked so hard not only in support of Roque (Santa Cruz) but also in their defensive work was very pleasing."