BLACKBURN boss Mark Hughes has thrown his support behind West Ham counterpart Alan Curbishley ahead of his side's trip to Upton Park today.

The Irons chief has come under fire following three consecutive 4-0 defeats.

However, Hughes (pictured) admits he cannot understand the criticism aimed at the 50-year-old, particularly given the east Londoners' progress from their struggles last year.

"It is crazy really, if you look at the season that they had last year and look where they are this year then there has been a marked improvement," Hughes told the club's official website.

"But sometimes the pressure built by outside forces, people get on the bandwagon and things run away from you on occassions."

He added: "Alan is a seasoned Premiership manager, he's had these episodes before and has come through them.

"It is a little bit difficult given the degree that his team has lost games by so the pressure seems to be building, but I've no doubt that he'll still be in charge next year."

Hughes has urged Curbishley to be "thick-skinned" and just carry on tyring to get the right results.

He said: "It is just result-driven - if you get results then you don't get criticised."

Blackburn dropped two home points against Fulham last week, and Hughes is eager for his troops to get back to the job in hand of chasing down a European place.

He said: "At this stage of the season, when everybody is fighting for European places, fighting for Premier League titles, fighting for survival, results will spring out of situations.

"So we've just got to make sure there are no more surprises and that we just get the job that we have ahead done.

"We slipped up last weeend, which was a disappointment, but we've just got to focus on the games that we have left.

"West Ham is a difficult tie for us because we haven't done great against them in the past, but we are looking forward to it."

Hughes could have midfielders Brett Emerton and David Dunn both back be in contention.

The duo have both been back in training this week following groin and calf injuries respectively.

However, Republic of Ireland international Steven Reid is a doubt with a groin problem.

Blackburn (from): Friedel, Emerton, Samba, Khizanishvili, Warnock, Tugay, Dunn, Pedersen, Reid, Mokoena, Bentley, Roberts, Berner, Santa Cruz, McCarthy, Derbyshire, Rigters, Brown.