Under pressure Blackburn boss Steve Kean was talking up the Swans clash at Blackburn this weekend as a big game

Under pressure Blackburn boss Steve Kean was talking up the Swans clash at Blackburn this weekend as a big game

Kean told the Western Mail “It’s a massive game and it can kick-start our season – it has to,

“We’re in a position now where we’ve forfeited going through in this competition (Carling Cup) and getting to a cup final, we now need to treat Swansea like a cup final.

“We’ve got a number of games coming up with teams within touching distance and they have to be our cup finals.

“Swansea is a big game as are Bolton, Sunderland, West Brom – we’ve got teams we feel we’re in touching distance of.

“We’ve played a lot of teams up there in the top four or five so these are games that become our cup finals.

“It’s not just because it’s Swansea because I’ve seen them play a few times this season and they’re a very good side. But we’ve got them at home and we feel if we can get a victory we can get up and started again.

“It’s never nice when fans be negative but when you’re focused on the game once it starts it’s something you put to the back of your mind and it doesn’t affect you,” added Kean.

“What we’ll do now is get the lads out of the treatment room, get them on the training field every day and into the hotel on Friday night and prepare for this massive game against Swansea.

“Saturday is massive for us, absolutely massive, hence the reason for five changes.

“Before the Cardiff game I had a decision to make how much I wanted to push Samba, Olsson, and Salgado.

“They could have probably played at a push if we’d been in a slightly different position in the league, but we’ve got Swansea coming up on Saturday so I made five changes and left those three at home to make sure they’ll be ready for the next game.

“They’re not small injuries and with the magnitude of the game coming up on Saturday, we need to get back to winning ways in the league so it was important."

Photo: Action Images

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