Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce has shrugged off criticism coming from outside.

Rovers' poor performance in Saturday's 1-1 home draw with Fulham drew some inevitable criticism from the stands but, as he looks to make amends, he was quick to point out the progress made during his reign at the club.

"The stick has been more about me than about the players," said Allardyce.

"It has created a bit of hysteria but I don't think the players are too worried about that.

"As a group of players we are very well bonded together now. We haven't quite been together for two years but have made massive strides, massive progress.

"We have completely turned around a huge amount of players. Financially we needed all the money we could get and also a lot of the players had come to the end of their contracts and were getting on a little bit.

"The massive strides we have made is we finished 10th, that was an over achievement considering what we were doing in terms of changing all the players, sorting the club out financially and then bringing a lot of young players into the side.

"Now we have built an expectation of our own fans that 10th is the target and that is a hard thing to go for and one we believe we can and perhaps, given a bit of luck, might be able to do even better."