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Nelsen eyes European spot

Image: Nelsen: Crazy season

Captain Ryan Nelsen is confident Blackburn can put themselves in contention for a place in Europe.

Defender hails 'incredible' year for New Zealand

Skipper Ryan Nelsen is confident Blackburn can quickly climb the Premier League table and put themselves in contention for a European spot. The experienced New Zealand international believes Rovers, who have spent the majority of the season in the bottom half, can put together a decent run in the next few weeks which could radically alter their campaign. The inspirational 33-year-old hopes the Ewood Park outfit can take advantage of the closeness between all the teams, which has surprised him. "It is the most crazy season since I've been here," said Nelsen. "Generally the league sorts itself out by about 15 games but I think it might take 25 games before that happens now.

Squashed

"With the big teams not firing as much as they would like and the smaller teams firing, it has squashed everyone up. "One win puts you in Europe and one loss can put you right down there. It is a fascinating league at the moment. "It is fairly early to say where we might finish, we've got a couple of difficult games and then we have got a good seam which will pretty much determine how our season will end up."
Exposure
Nelsen, who captained the All Whites during their superb World Cup campaign in the summer, says 2010 has been an 'incredible' year for himself and the national side. "It's been incredible," he said. "I used to really enjoy going home because I could walk around and no-one would know who I was! "It's completely changed now. All circles of society know everything about you. "It just shows the exposure the team got and I think we gave the country a bit of pride."

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