Valerien Ismael admitted he was concentrating on getting his first win as Blackburn boss rather than reaching the play-offs after watching his side lose 1-0 to Portsmouth.
Ismael has only picked up a single point since replacing John Eustace in February as Rovers slipped to 11th in the Championship, five points adrift of the top six.
Blackburn are on a four-match losing streak and have only won one of their last 10 matches away from Ewood Park, with Josh Murphy’s cool first-half strike the difference at Fratton Park.
Ismael said: “The first thing we need to do is win a game. It is step-by-step, but while you are not winning games you can talk as much as you want, but it is frustrating.
“It has been the picture in many games. We are trying to implement the belief, how we want to play and create a new habit. The first thing is to keep a clean sheet and stay in the game.
“We have to stay positive. The main focus is the next game and to win three points. When you get the three points the feeling will come back.
“At the minute I’m just thinking about the next game and to win a game. If you are not winning games you can’t talk about the next step.
“Today was a big disappointment, especially how we approached the first half. We expected much more.
“We know it takes time but the players need to believe more because they have the quality.”
Murphy scored the only goal of the match in the 20th minute after a sublime one-two with Colby Bishop and then a calm finish into the bottom corner.
It ended a run of back-to-back defeats for Pompey and lifted them seven points above the relegation zone.
However, head coach John Mousinho does not want his players or the fans to get carried away.
Mousinho said: “It’s a big win, there’s no doubt about that, and I don’t want to dampen the spirits. We needed that on the back of two losses.
“We need to learn our lesson that there are clubs at the bottom who are going to pick up points and wins. We’ve seen it with Plymouth and Luton and other sides.
“It’s going to be incredibly tight and sides are going to pick up points. We have to make that irrelevant by doing the job ourselves.
“We have seen how quickly things change so we need to be right on it with everything we do, not get complacent and keep picking up points.
“The second we will relax is the moment we are mathematically safe.”
