BLACKBURN Rovers may find themselves nine points behind the top six going into tonight’s trip to Watford, but centre-back Matt Kilgallon insists their play-off dreams are not dead yet.

Gary Bowyer’s side slipped further behind sixth-placed Reading on Saturday despite battling back to earn a 1-1 draw at home to leaders Leicester City.

But Kilgallon reckons the performance Rovers produced against the Foxes should give them belief going into the final 10 games of the campaign that they could yet make the play-offs.

“You know what this league is like, you win three games, you get nine points and you’re right back in there,” said Kilgallon, whose headed equaliser on Saturday was the first goal he has scored for Rovers since he made the move from Sunderland in the summer.

“That’s how mad it is. We’ve got 10 games left to play and I think it’s definitely possible.”

Since going down to a woeful home loss to Bournemouth two weeks ago Rovers have responded with a 4-2 victory at Huddersfield and a superb second-half against Leicester.

Kilgallon added: “We’ve been working on some stuff in training because against Bournemouth it wasn’t good enough and we ran out of ideas. But we’ve worked on stuff, the lads have taken it on board and you could tell that on Saturday by the way we played.

“Now we don’t want to let ourselves down on Tuesday because I think we’ve got a little carrot there.”

But even if Rovers fail to make the top six, Kilgallon believes they have the nucleus of a team that can push for promotion next season.

The 30-year-old said: “We’re still going for this season’s play-offs as we’ve got 10 games to play and a lot of points left to pick up.

“But if it doesn’t happen this season we’ll be a better team next season because we’ll have had a year of playing together, everyone will be older, wiser and more experienced, and we’ll give it a good go.

“There is a great atmosphere around the training ground and a belief in what the gaffer is doing.

“We’ve got some good young players – when you’re 30 like me and you’re running after 22-year-olds you wonder how long you have got left – and they are only going to get better as they get stronger and more mature.”