Applying different rules when Hovering over an Active link

I'm currently working with a set of links that are getting their background images replaced when they are focused, hovered over, and non-focused; but right now I also 开发者_运维知识库need to fix it so that when you hover a focused link you'll get yet another result. My searching hasn't found anything and my experiments with anything like:

a:focus:hover { background:url(image.url) no-repeat;}

have met with less than desired results. Does anyone know of way to simply do what I'm trying for?

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This should work, but focus won't work in IE without a valid doctype, so I doubt :focus:hover will fare any better.

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Solution found, that method does work; but only when you remember to include the class and sub-class names that you are applying to an item.