Blackburn boss Steve Kean is not surprised former Rovers midfielder Keith Andrews has had such an impact at Saturday's opponents West Brom.
We target points from every game, says Blackburn boss
Blackburn boss Steve Kean is not surprised former Rovers midfielder Keith Andrews has had such an impact at Saturday's opponents West Brom.
The Republic of Ireland midfielder left Ewood Park in January claiming that his "face didn't fit" at Rovers, even criticising Kean for succumbing to pressure from fans who had targeted him.
Andrews has since become an important part of Roy Hodgson's set-up at The Hawthorns, scoring in his first two games for the Baggies.
But Kean is insistent he does rate the 31-year-old, who had earlier preferred to go on loan to Ipswich rather than stay at Blackburn.
He said: "It no surprise to me that he has done well as I have a lot of admiration for Keith.
"He made it clear when he came back from his loan spell at Ipswich that he wanted to move on.
"I'm delighted for him. He's an international player and I thought he was their best players against Everton last week."
Blackburn appeared to have pulled clear of the relegation battle but now need a victory at The Hawthorns after successive defeats plunged them back into the drop zone.
Confident
Kean remains confident survival can be achieved, however, and was even baffled that Rovers came away pointless from Monday's 2-0 defeat to Manchester United.
He added: "We are really disappointed not to have taken anything from that game.
"We had six very good chances on target to their eight, and there was also one of the best last-ditch tackles you will ever see from Rio Ferdinand that just took it away from Yakubu as he was about to score.
"But there is plenty of encouragement to take from that."
Kean also believes his Rovers side have shown real determination in the face of adversity since the turn of the year.
He said: "Since New Year's Day, we have managed to pick up 17 points and we have been at a lot of tough away grounds.
Strong finish
"We are certainly finishing stronger much like we did last season.
"We have to make sure that we try to take points from every single game remaining and that includes at Tottenham and Chelsea.
"We did expect to get something from the Man Utd game and the key is to go into every game - especially with the way we have been playing away from home - expecting to get something."
One source of encouragement for Rovers is that they beat both West Brom and Tuesday's opponents Liverpool in the corresponding fixtures last season.
"It is a nice omen that we have got these two games coming up," added Kean.
"We have happy memories of the Hawthorns - we won there last season and beat Liverpool at home, and there is no reason why we can't do that again."
