Blackburn Rovers vs Fulham highlights: Tony Mowbray's demand with Sheffield United next up at Ewood Park

Rovers were 2-0 down when they had Jan Paul van Hecke sent off and Fulham then ran riot in the second half with Neeskens Kebano, Harry Wilson and Rodrigo Muniz all bagging a brace on the night and Aleksandar Mitrovic adding another.

It was Blackburn’s heaviest home defeat in their history and their third worst overall.

Mowbray’s side – which was without a number of important players through injury – now face the Blades, again at home, and the manager insists he and his team can’t afford to dwell on a sobering night which he says “will stay on the CV for the rest of their careers.”

“We were playing against a very good side, who were ruthless against us, and we have to put it behind us very quickly because we have another game,” said Mowbray.

“In my 18 years as a coach I’ve not been beaten by that number, as a coach you know your team and it’s not the time to pour over the reasons, the issues, the problems.

“You have to look at the group you’ve got and we’ve got some young players and that will stay on the CV for the rest of their careers, they will remember a 7-0 defeat at home for the rest of their lives and their careers,” Mowbray added.

“They have to reflect, I have to reflect, I find it difficult because of my own human mechanisms, but they will find their own way and you have to put into perspective, and I’ve said many, many times, and I don’t want to make excuses, but we are without some key footballers in some pretty key areas of the pitch that are unavailable and that team out there still underachieved even with 10 men against a very good team.

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“It can happen. I’ve seen certain teams, Premier League teams, lose by nine to good teams in their division, it can happen and as I’ve said last season we scored five against teams with 10 men and you can runaway with it and they did. They have very good attacking players and they punished us.

“We have to draw a line under it quickly.”

BLACKBURN ROVERS DON’T NORMALLY CONCEDE A LOT OF GOALS

Mowbray added that while there are issues that will need to be sorted before Sheffield United head across to Lancashire on Saturday, he would be more concerned if Rovers were losing heavily on a regular basis. All four of their previous Championship defeats in this campaign have been by one goal.

“It’s the same for me as it is the players, it’s not nice,” he added.

“I try and put it into perspective of where we are, the team we are, and it’s not something that is there on a regular basis, it’s not the DNA of this team, and sometimes you have to accept you played against very good footballers, a better team, and they were pretty ruthless with what they did tonight.

“They will probably be playing in the Premier League next year, or at least very close to it.

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“If it was a case of us losing heavily most weeks it’d be more of a problem we could look at and say that the team has a soft underbelly.

“You watch us over the last few years, if we lose a match it’s generally a very, very tight game, 2-1, 1-0, it’s rare we lose a game by more than one goal and that’s because the sprit of the team and the togetherness.

“We played against a team that was on it, a really high quality team with some very talented individuals at the top end of the pitch and we suffered.”