Blackburn kept their dreams of playing in Europe next season alive with a deserved 3-1 win over local rivals Wigan at Ewood Park.

When the teams met at Wigan earlier in the season Roque Santa Cruz scored a hat trick for ten man Rovers but still ended up on the wrong side of a 5-3 scoreline.

And the Paraguayan international continued his scoring streak against the Latics with two headed goals in the 12th and 63rd minute. His first gave Rovers the lead only for Blackburn to be reduced to ten men shortly afterwards.

Christopher Samba was adjudged to have committed a professional foul on Emile Heskey and Marlon King restored parity from the penalty spot.

But the home sides numerical disadvantage barely registered and on the stroke of half time former Wigan player Jason Roberts regained the lead for Blackburn.

Santa Cruz with his 18th goal of the campaign gave Rovers some breathing space with another header from David Bentley's cross.

Wigan, desperate to get away from the relegation dogfight, then had midfielder Wilson Palacios dismissed with 20 minutes to go for a second bookable offence.

"I thought we were excellent today, it was a really committed performance," said delighted Blackburn boss Mark Hughes.

"I'm really pleased for the guys because they had to dig in in difficult circumstances and the decision to send Chrissy Samba off was a difficult one, at the time we thought he went down very very easily and it was a hard price to pay .

"But we re-organised ourselves, made sure that we had a decent shape, we kept two players up front because we were trying to win the game."