Telegraph Sport

Blackburn Rovers manager targets a week to remember

By Andy Cryer

8:59am Monday 22nd March 2010

A JUBILANT SAM Allardyce is hoping to make it a week to remember for Rovers fans.

El-Hadji Diouf’s second-half header earned Rovers a point against high-flying Chelsea yesterday afternoon, and Allardyce now has guaranteed survival in his sights.

Rovers are 11 points clear of safety, sitting on 35 points in 12th, but he believes Wednesday’s visit of Birmingham and Sunday’s trip to Burnley could make the end to the season even less pressurised.

He said: “That draw was great from our point of view because it is such a big week for us.

"This is a great start, we have got Burnley and Birmingham to play and if we play like we did in the second half we could almost secure our Premier League status by the end of this week.

“We are a long way off the bottom three but of course there is still a niggling doubt in your mind that someone could have a very good run like they have in the past.

“Someone could do that and we want to get to 38, and we want to get that as soon as possible.

"And that would be very nice to finish the season off with less pressure and to win more points to get further up the league.”

Ewood Park was already getting ready for next weekend’s East Lancashire derby, with several chants about their claret and blue neighbours, but Allardyce admits Birmingham have to be their immediate priority.

Rovers will have the Blues in their sights as they look to climb into the top half of the table between now and the end of the season – with Allardyce adamant Burnley will be forgotten until Thursday.

He said: “Birmingham is a big game, a difficult game.

"They have had a terrific season and they are well versed in what they do.

“Perform like we have in the second half and we will get the chance to win the game.

“We have only had two defeats all season at Ewood, which will give everyone a little bit of fear who come and we have to keep that up and maintain that Wednesday.

“Then we can look forward to the big derby after that.”

Just minutes before Diouf’s equaliser Allardyce’s decision to withdraw Nikola Kalinic for Jason Roberts brought vocal jeers from the Ewood Park crowd – who wanted the Rovers boss to play with two conventional strikers.

Allardyce though was proved right as Rovers earned a priceless Premier League point and he insisted sometimes you can’t afford to chase games.

He said: “Sometimes you can’t go gung-ho. We had to be patient and keep working at them and in the end we got the result.

“I think we deserved it in the end. Our second half performance merited the equaliser we got and it is a big week for us and this is a very good start.

“Everyone thought Chelsea would come here and take the points and move on to try and win the tile and gladly we have produced a performance with a result this time.”

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