BLACKBURN midfielder Barry Ferguson believes he's starting to adapt to life in The Premiership following his big money move from Rangers.

The tigerish midfielder made a sticky start to his Ewood career after signing from Rangers in a £6 million deal.

Rovers' poor start, coupled with problems in finding a new house, hardly helped the 25-year-old to make a seamless move from the Scottish Premier League.

But Rovers' recent revival has coincided with Ferguson finding his feet in England and now he's determined to prove that the cream of Scottish talent can cut it in the Premiership.

"The first month was difficult for me and I admit my performances were not up to scratch," said Ferguson.

"I always set myself high standards and I was still getting to know my team-mates then. In the last month or two I've been really happy with the way I've been playing."

Ferguson is now determined to build on the progress he has made during the last couple of months as he aims to prove the critics were wrong to question his decision to move south.

"I hear all these people saying that they don't know if I can cut it down here, but that's one of the reasons I came down here in the first place - to show what I could do against teams like Arsenal," he added.

"Patrick Vieira is a quality player and someone I admire, but I played against my hero Roy Keane two weeks ago.

"They're all quality players down here, so playing against Vieira maybe isn't such a big deal."

Meanwhile, Ferguson is still hurting following Scotland's exit from the Euro 2004 play-offs at the hands of Holland.

"I think some people were over-confident after the first game because we got such a good result at Hampden,"said Ferguson.

"There are positives to take from the campaign, but we have still got a very long way to go before we can class ourselves as a good team."

In the meantime, Ferguson has already started looking ahead to the World Cup qualifiers, where Scotland will face Italy, Slovenia, Norway, Belarus and Moldova in a difficult qualifying group.

"It isn't the worst group for us to be honest.

"We've definitely got a chance. I think you have to be positive."