I WAS surprised Rovers got beat against West Ham. I was surprised big time.

And that makes tomorrow's game against Fulham even more important. It's Rovers' first home game and they need to get some points on the board. They also need to give the fans something to shout about.

The supporters that travelled down to Upton Park will have been very disappointed with what they saw. The three goals they gave away were poor goals and it's important that they bounce straight back.

Fulham are many people's favourites for the drop this year after losing the likes of Andy Cole.

They got a good point against Birmingham at the weekend but Rovers should be looking to get the three points. Especially with the Tottenham game just five days later.

That's going to be a tough game because they're going to be a good side this year. Martin Jol has made some very good signings and that makes us getting a result against Fulham even more important.

Our home form is going to be vital this season. You have to set your stall out to win half your home games at least. If you do, you have 30 points in the bank straight away and gives you something to build on. If you can pick up points on your travels then you can have a succesful season.

Our home form in recent seasons, especially under Graham Souness, has been poor and Mark Hughes will need to rectify that.

But we'll need to be better defensively because big individual mistakes led to West Ham's goals. Ryan Nelsen was a big miss for us because he was a real rock at the back for us last season.

But because the errors were so bad I think even if he was playing it may not have made any difference.

The Craig Bellamy/Shefki Kuqi partnership didn't get off to the best start but you can't tell anything after one game.

I'll be hoping they can do the business on Saturday and start to build up an understanding. Rovers need goals and I'm confident those two can provide them.

They're even more important now that Paul Dickov will be missing for three games after his red card.

Mark will know that Rovers have to do better than they did on Saturday against Fulham and he'll be setting his team up to go out and win.

Rovers need to win badly because losing can become a habit and a hard one to break.