BLACKBURN midfielder Steven Reid today revealed how a pep-talk from manager Graeme Souness sparked a transformation in Rovers' fortunes earlier this week.

Rovers had been criticised for a lack of width in the build-up to Monday night's game against Everton after the team had scored just once in their previous five league outings.

That prompted Souness to pull Reid and fellow wide-man Brett Emerton to one side for a chat about how they could be more effective going forward.

And the manager's advice paid instant dividends against the Toffees as the midfield duo carried his instructions out to the letter during a first half blitz which effectively swung the game in Rovers' favour.

"It's been drilled into me and Brett during the last week or so that we've got to start giving the team a bit more width, so we got a few more crosses in on Monday and it caused them lots of problems," said Reid.

"Two good crosses led to two headed goals and if we can do that a bit more often then I'm sure we'll start climbing up the table.

"We also won a lot of the ball in midfield with Garry Flitcroft and Barry Ferguson and we finished off some of the chances we had, too, which is something we maybe haven't been doing in recent weeks."

Monday's victory certainly came as a welcome tonic for Rovers following a run of five straight defeats immediately prior to that.

And now Reid hopes Rovers' second home win of the season will act as a launch pad for a determined charge up the table.

"To be honest, our start to the season did come as a bit of a surprise to me," said Reid. "When I came to the club, it was flying high after finishing sixth last season and getting into Europe.

"Obviously, the gaffer made a few signings in the summer, including myself, and I think it has maybe taken a little while for all those names to gel.

"But hopefully Monday's win can set us off on a little run now and there's no reason why we can't be back up there come the end of the season.

"The result against Everton was just what we needed. It's been a while since we had that winning feeling and everyone was relieved to get the three points."

In the meantime, Reid is beginning to adjust to life at Ewood after what has been a traumatic start to his Rovers career.

If moving clubs and stepping up a level in class wasn't difficult enough, then the settling in period was hardly made any easier by a red card at Bolton on his debut.

However, the Republic of Ireland international has now put all that behind him and he's starting to feel at home in the north.

"I'm renting an apartment in Manchester but I'll be moving into Bolton in January, so I'll finally be settled. But I'm enjoying it, despite where we've been in the league.

"This is a good learning experience for me and hopefully I can develop as a player. Playing in the Premier League is tough. Give anyone a sniff and you're punished.

"We've suffered from giving away a couple of stupid goals like at Leicester recently where we dominated the game but they had two chances and scored twice."