From hoping for promotion to fighting for survival

Blackburn Rovers defender Scott Wharton has no doubts clean sheets will play a pivotal role in trying to avoid the “dreaded” drop.

Rovers are surprisingly languishing in 17th spot in the Championship, just three points above the relegation zone having been tipped as one of the early promotion favourites this term.

And with just eight games left to save their bacon, centre-back Wharton has called for the Lancashire to lock the back doors to keep their opponents at bay.

“I think if we want to stay in this league we’ve got to keep more clean sheets,” stressed Wharton.

“The new manager [John Eustace] has come in and made us more solid as a team, I think we massively needed that.

“The less goals we concede is the more the chance we’ve got of staying up. We know that – and knew that – and we look more solid as a team now, which is good.”

“We’ve not had enough clean sheets this season and, from my point of view, and probably from all the defenders and the whole squad, it’s not been good enough in terms of the amount of goals we’ve conceded this season.

“But if you take your foot off the gas, and you go on a bad run over Christmas, like we did, it just shows how tight this league is and how things can change very quickly.

“If you take your eye off, teams will punish you – and that’s what’s happened.

“We’ve got a lot more solid under the new gaffer and a lot more organised – and more together as a team, which is what we needed.” 

Staying focused on the final stretch

Rovers have drawn six of the last seven league matches and last won 10 games ago in an especially testing period for the club, with former boss Jon Dahl Tomasson having been given the boot following a poor run of form.

But Wharton, whose brother Adam left Ewood Park earlier this season in a club record £22million deal to Premier League Crystal Palace, is confident Rovers have enough quality to get out of trouble despite all the upheaval at the club.

“We’re focused on the final eight games now,” added Wharton.

“It’s good we’ve got plenty of players back, especially at this point in the season.

“It’s going to take all of us [to get out of trouble], not just the starting XI from now until the end of the season.

“There’s going to be injuries, suspensions, and changes in personnel, so we’re going to need everyone for these last eight games.

“Every game is big, we’re fully aware of that, but we’re going into every [match] trying to win. We’re not going to shy away from the challenge.

“We won’t sit in and try and scrape a point, we want to win these games. We’re fully aware of the situation and we know it’s a big weekend, but we’re going into these games with confidence,” said Wharton.