To a man, everybody at Ewood Park can take some credit for today’s vital win over Wigan.

In defence, Paul Robinson was unbeatable. An absolute wall in the Rovers goal. I saw some stupid article, probably written by some twat from America who’s never actually witnessed a real football match, which ranked Robbo as the third worst signing this season, he has surely answered any critics today, and with the England goalkeeping situation as it is he’s surely worth a chance, isn’t he? Very unlucky not to get Sky Sports’ man of the match in my opinion, although McCarthy did play well!

The rest of the defence was very solid. Givet and Nelsen never lost anything, Ooijer and Warnock at full back as reliable as ever. Special mention must go to Nelsen for scoring the best goal I have ever seen… What a time to score your first goal for the club!

We won the midfield battle. Diouf was exceptional down the right. I was dubious about the Senegalese midfielder when we initially signed him, but he really has shown his qualities and looks extremely dangerous every time he gets the ball. Pedersen looked about as good as I’ve seen him in a year while Tugay’s passing and Dunn’s energy kept us on top.

Samba was as solid as ever, despite not scoring he was involved in both goals, blocking Wigan keeper Chris Kirkland to provide McCarthy and Nelsen with perfect scoring opportunity’s. McCarthy scored the opener and set up the second. His cross was an absolute peach, keeping reasonably low and maintaining zip it was just begging for slight nod, and that’s exactly what the Admiral did. Who better to score the winner than the captain?

However, and this is where my headline comes in, the fans really answered Big Sam and Ryan Nelsen’s rallying cries. Turning up in numbers and singing their hearts out for 90 minutes. I’m gutted I wasn’t one of those 25,000-odd fans who really did their part in a fantastic day. It’s really good to see a club initiative pay off like this, going to show we really do have a board that has the fans’ interests at heart!

As I write I’ve just seen the league table on MOTD 2 and would like to point out IT IS WRONG. The league table shown had not been updated since last night and we are now 15th, on 37 points, six points clear of Boro in 18th and seven clear of Alan Shearer’s Newcastle, who take on Portsmouth tomorrow in an absolutely vital clash which could all but seal their fate!

Today was fantastic. When we play like that we show we really are capable of a much higher league position and, pretty confident of survival, I am beginning to look forward to next season.

However, this isn’t the game that’s going to save our season. We still have four points between ourselves and the bottom three, and our three home games are the important ones.

Newcastle travel to Spurs, so hoping for a favour from the Cockneys. Boro host Fulham so former boss Roy Hodgson could do us a real favour by turning them over.

Having said that, we are still well able of relying on our own results to ensure our safety, and that’s what Sam has to concentrate on doing tomorrow.

Stoke, on paper, are shit. But they have a fantastic manager in Tony Pulis who has done enough, it would seem, to keep them in the league this season. This has been based purely on their home record – their away record has been abysmal (remember our 3-0 tubbing of them in Big Sam’s first game?)

For that reason it will be extremely tough for us to take anything from the game, but we are well capable and should go into the game with a positive attitude, not the frightened, full of respect style of play we used at Anfield last match in which we looked completely out of our depth!

We have a solid following, having sold out our 3,000(ish) tickets for the away end, helped to an extent I reckon by the club laying on free travel – good on them. Unfortunately the sellout means this Rovers blogger has to miss out on the action and will have to put up with Jeff Stelling on Saturday afternoon!

Santa is still out, in fact the team is much as it was at Liverpool. It would be nice though to see Sam play two men up front, instead of the negative five across midfield! The only real difference is Vince Grella back, who came on as a sub and was largely ineffective in the last game. I rated this guy at first but, having had endless injury problems, need to see some consistently good performances to be persuaded he’s worth the £4m price tag Paul Ince paid for him.

Interesting to see where Samba plays though!

As I said in my previous post, I wasn’t expecting anything in terms of a result, but when we just turn up and allow ourselves to get pasted like that it really annoys me.

Samba up front was the best player for us, although as he was on his own it was impossible for him to do anything. I have no idea what Benni McCarthy has done but Sam seems to have fallen out with him.

If it was up to me yesterday, the South African would have been introduced at half time to replace a midfielder (preferably Treacy with Dunn pushing out to the left hand side) to give us a chance of scoring, which would have put some pressure on the home side.

Outside of Rovers I got the impression yesterday we were never supposed to surprise our hosts and take anything. Indeed, if we had, we’d have spoiled their Hillsborough memorial.

This may sound harsh but the Scousers do like to revel in everybody’s sympathy when it comes to this time of year, and if we came in and nicked a result it would have been what nobody wanted on the 20th anniversary of the disaster.

On a Hillsborough note, it was nice to see Scouser Stephen Warnock present a memorial gift to the Kop End prior to kick off. Moments like that really sum up the true spirit of the game, where things like that transcend the hatred and fury shown vented towards the opposition fans on the terraces.

Not much to say about the match. Torres’ goal was outstanding. His second annoyed me as I can’t see how Chris Samba, at 20 feet tall, can be beaten in the air… The third was an excellent finish, I don’t care what Andy ‘I’m the God of football’ Gray says on Sky (he’s a right twat) about Robinson needing to do better. Yes, he was beaten at his near post, but I doubt many keepers would have kept out that strike.

The third goal was shite defending, and for Ngog to score against us is just embarrassing!

In the end, we should have lost by double figures. The 4-0 scoreline does nothing for our steadily recovering goal difference, and other results really went against us.

Still, four points off the drop our safety is well and truly in our own hands.

We are level on points with Portsmouth, who we are still to meet at Ewood, and Hull, with Stoke just two points ahead who we take on at the Britannia Stadium next week.

One thing’s for sure, we could really do with Santa Cruz back!

Liverpool tomorrow, may as well write this one off. Anything more than a defeat is an absolute bonus when we travel to Anfield tomorrow. Especially as they’ll be looking to bounce back from that terrible defeat on Wednesday night!

I, and I advise fellow Rovers fans to do the same, will not be despairing if we come back from Merseyside following a tonking tomorrow as, following a great win against Spurs (which could well turn out to be the biggest result of our season when it is consigned to the history books) we do not need this match.

Looking to our upcoming fixtures, we are still to take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, so with these two fixtures still ahead of us and our Premiership safety still in the balance, you could be forgiven for thinking we are in for turbulent times.

However, with three home games to go, against Portsmouth, Wigan and West Brom (which is the last game of the season) safety is still well and truly within our grasp. Especially as there is currently a five point gap between ourselves and 18th place Newcastle.

Tomorrow’s game could see an unusual lineup. With Roberts and Santa injured, as well as Ped out, it remains to be seen whether Big Sam sticks Benni on his own up front (a disastrous decision if you ask me) or goes with Big Chris Samba to partner the South African, as he did with great effect in the second half last Saturday.

Interesting to see if Nick Blackman gets to sit on the bench, the striker, signed from Macclesfield in January, has just returned from a loan spell at Blackpool and could provide the only striking alternative!

Expect to see Stephen Warnock on the left wing and Gael Givet at full back, meaning Ooijer will probably start in the centre.

Good news is that Gerrard is unlikely to be fully fit, it isn’t expected he’ll start the match and may not be risked if Rafa’s men seem to cope without him.

This game is winnable, just ask our First Division side of 2000 who knocked out the Reds at Anfield with a solitary strike from the one and only, Nathan Blake!