Appleton claims Cup hangover

Rovers suffered something of an FA Cup hangover last night with a drab 2-0 reverse at the hands of Hull City.

The verve and fight of Saturday's heroics at the Emirates were nowhere to be found on a poor night at the KC Stadium with an infinitely more sprightly and lively Hull emerging deserved victors.

Blackburn boss Michael Appleton felt the epic effort taken to progress to the FA Cup quarter finals had an adverse effect on the game last night and despite keeping their shape well, Rovers eventually lost out.

'It was a worry of mine going into the game that the euphoria of Saturday might affect the performance.

'Ultimately, for whatever reason, I think that happened,' Appleton told BBC Radio Lancashire.

Second placed City inflicted Rovers first defeat since Appleton's first game in charge against Charlton Athletic but there is an opportunity to atone with an important game against Leeds United lurking at the weekend.

Appleton said: 'The first goal was going to be important and we didn't deal with the disappointment of conceding that first goal.

'We should have stuck in there and made the game a little bit harder than it was after that.

'We get the opportunity of a home game [against Leeds on Saturday] to get a good reaction from the players and I'm sure we will.

'There are going to be a few ups and downs between now and the end of the season and this is certainly a down, but we had a big up on Saturday and hopefully we can have another up this coming Saturday as well.'

Bad day at the office.

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