Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas admitted to a feeling of relief after his side snapped a run of two consecutive Barclays Premier League losses with a 1-0 win at Blackburn.
Frank Lampard nodded home a 50th-minute cross from Branislav Ivanovic but the visitors were forced to hang on with Ivanovic heading against his own crossbar with four minutes to go.
After last week's high-octane 5-3 defeat to Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, Villas-Boas welcomed a first half of "low intensity" and said the points were all important.
"We are very happy because we needed this stimulus of a win before the international break to make sure everybody goes into the break with a better feeling," Villas-Boas said.
"It (the clean sheet) was important. It is always important to win the game, no matter what are the conditions. We had to suffer a little bit but we managed to hold onto a clean sheet.
"It is never easy at Ewood Park, particularly when you are going through back-to-back defeats in the Premier League and bearing in mind that Blackburn are in desperate need of points."
Meanwhile Villas-Boas hailed the bravery of goalkeeper Petr Cech who required seven minutes of treatment on a suspected broken nose after a clash with Ayegbeni Yakubu early in the first half.
Villas-Boas added: "He was in some difficulty but Petr is very prone to these kinds of incidents - he has had collisions with his head, concussion and now a broken nose.
"He gave us good signs straight away and we asked him at half-time did he want to continue. It shows the commitment and bravery of this player who has suffered a lot with this type of injury."
Media were asked prior to the post-match press conferences not to ask any questions relating to John Terry's police charge or the issue of international selection.
Rovers boss Steve Kean claimed not to have noticed a small plane which buzzed above Ewood Park in the first period trailing a banner reading 'Kean Out'.
Kean also shrugged off a small post-match protest and instead chose to hail another fine performance from his team who could have taken at least a point.
"I don't feel let down because I think my players gave it everything," he said.
"We are disappointed not to take anything from the game after creating that amount of chances.
"I feel like we should have taken at least a point but the overall performance not only in this game but in others recently has been excellent.
"Yakubu had some chances on the counter-attack and we are creating those chances. The strikers have just got to keep in there and we have lots of young lads who have given sterling performances."
However there was another blow for Kean when he revealed captain Christopher Samba is likely to be sidelined for some time after being substituted with a hamstring injury.
Kean added: "Chris tried to shake it off and we were hoping it was cramp. It is a killer because he is so influential but we have a number of players in that position who are making progress."
