Kean not fretting over Blackburn plight

13 April 2012 14:17

Blackburn boss Steve Kean is confident Rovers have more than enough time to get out of trouble as they bid to end a run of four successive Barclays Premier League defeats at Swansea on Saturday.

Back-to-back victories over Wolves and Sunderland last month looked to have taken Kean's side to the verge of safety but they have failed to pick up a point since and other teams have taken advantage. Rovers head to the Liberty Stadium three points from safety with five games remaining, which include away matches at Tottenham and Chelsea.

Kean said: "We've worked on the bits we feel we can improve on. They've got a very good home record but we know if we can get a clean sheet and a victory, and then match what we did against Wolves and Sunderland, then the whole table changes again. We're still confident we can get into a good position."

Swansea have been one of the success stories of this season but they have struggled in recent weeks and also go into the match on a run of four straight defeats.

"At the moment they're not as fluid, they've obviously picked up a couple of defeats," said Kean, who guided his team to a 4-2 victory over the Swans at Ewood Park in December.

"We've got to think about how we went about the first game, what was successful, what we can improve on over the last few weeks and put that together. I think it's a good time to go there."

Tuesday's match in many ways typified Rovers' rollercoaster season, with Ayegbeni Yakubu missing a penalty following the first-half dismissal of Liverpool goalkeeper Alexander Doni but then levelling at 2-2 with a spot-kick only for Andy Carroll to score an injury-time winner.

Kean credited stand-in keeper Brad Jones for second-guessing his former Middlesbrough colleague Yakubu and confirmed the striker will retain penalty-taking duties.

The Scot said: "What slightly affected Yakubu is he knows their goalkeeper from a previous club and he played it very well, he waited and he knows Yakubu's style of penalty taking.

"I'm sure other goalkeepers will be trying to work him out but he's been very successful up to that one he missed. He was confident, he wanted to take it and he practises them regularly so, if he's confident, then he'll be on them."

Source: PA