DELIGHT just about shaded it ahead of despair and disgust as Sam Allardyce wrestled with his emotions after seeing Wanderers produce one of the most dramatic derby comebacks.

It left beleaguered Blackburn boss Graeme Souness looking anxiously over his shoulder at the bottom three.

Allardyce was clearly delighted to see his players produce a performance of character and class to recover from 3-1 down to win 4-3 and hoist themselves back into the mid-table comfort zone, with 26 points from 21 games.

But he could not hold back on his criticism of the defending that left them playing catch up, despite Kevin Nolan giving them a dream start inside 14 seconds, or on the decision that could have proved so costly.

He fumed when Vratislav Gresko was allowed to run into space to fire in the equaliser within a couple of minutes after Nolan's quickfire opener and he could not believe what he was seeing when Bruno N'Gotty, of all people, misjudged a header back to Jussi Jaaskelainen and handed Rovers' third goal on a plate to Andy Cole.

His fury was compounded by referee Steve Dunn showing only the yellow card to Cole for trampling on Nicky Hunt -- a decision which saw insult added to injury when Dwight Yorke stroked in the second while Hunt was off the field having treatment.

"I was bitterly disappointed with the players," the manager said. "I felt they should have done a lot better, particularly from the defensive point of view.

"Their first goal I felt was a good finish but we should have snuffed him out long before he got his shot in and, when they scored the third from Bruno's header, it looked like it was going to be one of those bizarre days.

"In the end it was an unbelievable fightback by the players after some self-inflicted mistakes and that incident when Andy Cole should have been punished more than he was.

"I thought he brought his boot down on Nicky. He could have stamped on him worse, because it looks like he's gone down on him and realised what he was doing and tried to get away but I've seen it and the referee's assistant has seen it. He should have told the referee and he should have sent him off. If he hasn't told him, it's his fault, but if he's told the referee, it's the referee's fault. It should have been Blackburn down to 10 men and not us, but that ultimately led to them scoring their second goal. I can't accept regulations like that."

Youri Djorkaeff turned the game Wanderers' way when he pulled the score back to 3-2 just before half time and went on to give an outstanding second half performance in which Stelios and finally Nolan completed the comeback.

"Youri's goal was a wonderful piece of skill, a great execution," Allardyce added. "It got us back in the game and, after a few harsh words at half-time, we tested them right from the start of the second half and kept plugging away.

"We've won the game, I think, because of Graeme's problems. It's always difficult at Blackburn but because of their injury problems -- there were probably at least five first team players missing -- we've taken full advantage.

"We missed many chances and that's still a concern but I liked what I saw from Javi Moreno. He showed some clever touches and his pass for Henrik Pedersen's chance at the end was exceptional. Most of our players would have tried to play it at the player's feet but Javi gave him something to run on to.

"Henrik could have put it to bed for us with that chance ... but I'm not complaining."