A late goal from Andre Ooijer sealed a 3-2 win for Rovers and that went a long way to showing that there is no rift between the new boss and the players.
"I'm so happy for the boss because he got some criticism that was so out of line." he told the Lancashire Telegraph.
"He didn't deserve it because he's been fantastic.
"The first one is for him - all the lads are buzzing for him.
"We had a lot of doubters and a lot of people saying not-so-nice stuff about us during the whole of pre-season.
"But we know that what has been written is so untrue."
"I hope this has proved a lot of people wrong, and that we are trying to contend right up there," he added.
"Every year that I've been here, people have said that Blackburn are just a mid-table team and every year we prove them wrong.
"Hopefully we can do that again."