Joe Rankin-Costello insists Blackburn Rovers will not fear West Brom and believes they can match any team at Ewood Park.
Rovers have won five out of five in front of their own supporters this season, giving them the best home record in the Championship. Victory over the Baggies would see them match last season’s tally of six in the entire season.
Not for 30 years have Rovers opened the season with five wins at Ewood. Similarly, the 18 points collected from 10 league games is their highest since the Championship rebrand in 2004.
Understandably, confidence is high both in the terraces and the dressing room. Despite West Brom being an obvious step up in opposition, it will also be an opportunity to lay down a marker.
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Rankin-Costello believes Rovers are ready for any challenge at Ewood and are enjoying competing at the right end of the table.
“We don’t take any game for granted, especially after last year,” he told RoversTV.
“It is nice to be at this end of the table. But we have to keep going and chipping away with the points. We’re not really looking at the league table, just taking each game as it comes.
“If you do that, you end up at the right end of the table by the end of the year. We know we can match these teams and play our football.
“Last season, we struggled at home. Our form wasn’t great but we made a pact at the start of the season that we were going to be stronger here this year and hopefully, we can carry on doing that.
“West Brom will be tough, they’re a physical team. Hopefully, we can continue and get the three points.”
Against Swansea, Rovers showed different sides to their game. They started fast, got ahead and then frustrated the opposition by limiting them to few chances for a third successive clean sheet.
“Obviously, we’ve done very well here this season. Three points today and a clean sheet,” he said.
“Everyone was excellent. At times, we didn’t have the ball, they had a lot of possession. Our supporters got us through that and we’re grateful for that.
“We are picking our moments. We knew Swansea would have a lot of the ball so it’s our job to dig in. We did that with the set-piece and we scored.
“We started off very bright and we normally do, it’s about sustaining it until half-time.
“They had 15 minutes where we had to hang on a little bit but kept the clean sheet. I think we’ve had five clean sheets out of 11 (league and cup) which is good going.”
