Blackburn Rovers boss lays it on the line to players as survival fight intensifies ahead of Portsmouth contest
Pompey face off with Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, sitting five points clear of the relegation zone.
Michael O’Neill has signalled the importance of Blackburn Rovers’ huge survival showdown against Pompey on Saturday.
And the head coach has admitted the Blues’ are not too ‘dissimilar’ from his Rovers side as they prepare to lock horns at Ewood Park.
John Mousinho’s men will be looking to put further distance between themselves and the relegation zone, with a maximum points in Lancashire potentially moving them eight points clear of the bottom three this weekend.
Standing in the way of victory is a Blackburn outfit, who have picked up two wins and two defeats under O’Neill following his appointment as Valerien Ismael’s successor in February.
Rovers currently sit one point and one place below Pompey in the standings, with just West Brom separating the Lancashire outfit and the drop zone.
Indeed, the Northern Irishman, who is also continuing his role with the national side, has admitted the current Championship survival fight, which currently involves Leicester City, Oxford United, West Brom, Blackburn, Pompey and Charlton, has become its own mini league at the bottom of the standings
Championship survival fight becomes mini league
And the 56-year-old has laid it on the line to his players as they face Mousinho’s rejuvenated troops this weekend before a trip to relegation rivals Oxford in midweek.
He told BBC Radio Lancashire: ‘No they don’t (Blackburn’s games against Pompey and Oxford needing building up). When we look at the league table, I spoke to the players earlier this week and said we are in our own little league at this time and the key is not to finish in the bottom three of that league.
‘We play teams around us which are huge games because we want to get over 40 points as quickly as possible and we want to get within touching distance of that 50-point barrier that everyone talks about. But also we can prevent those teams as well.
‘If you look at the teams beneath us, they are not winning many games, we’ve won three of the last six and Portsmouth have won games as well in that period.
‘We’ve just got to try and put distance between those teams beneath us and we can only do that by trying to win. If you do so in the next two games because they’re teams around us then we’ll leapfrog them as well.’
Blackburn boss’ Pompey verdict
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Crucial wins against Charlton Athletic and Millwall eased the pressure before successive losses to Wrexham and Hull City have seen the advantage over the bottom three come down to five points.
And O’Neill understands the huge challenge which the Blues present his Blackburn side, who have won just four matches at Ewood Park this term.
The head coach added: ‘They’ve had two wins on the road recently in London. Two good results away at Millwall and away at Charlton so they had a really good week.
‘They went back to back and were on a losing streak going into that and lost subsequently at the weekend.
‘Probably not that dissimilar to ourselves as to where we are at the minute and like us trying to win games as well.
‘Ideally, I would love to say that I’d love an open game but that’s probably not the case. I would love a game where we are on top and obviously come out on top as well.’