City were trailing 2-0 with only six minutes of the match at Ewood Park remaining but scored two late goals to earn a 2-2 draw against Hughes' former club.
"When it gets to the latter stages and the situation we are, we were struggling a little bit," the City boss said.
"But the lads showed some fantastic effort and great commitment to keep going and I think we deserved something out of the game.
"It is difficult because we were playing back-to-back games and the spark for flowing football just wasn't there.
"But in the end we got our reward because we showed great character."