KEITH Gillespie today admitted he's entered the last chance saloon after being granted a reprieve by Blackburn boss Graeme Souness.

The 25-year-old winger thought he had played his last game for Rovers after Souness told him he could leave the club on a free transfer before Christmas.

But, after a heart-to-heart with the manager last week, the Northern Ireland international made a dramatic comeback as a second half sub at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

And now the former Manchester United star knows the onus is on him to make the most of his last chance if he wants to save his Ewood career from going down the pan.

"The manager has made it clear to me that he's given me a chance and it's now up to me to take it," said Gillespie.

"That means a lot to me because I've never expressed a desire to leave Blackburn.

"It's been a long time since I last played but in that period I've worked very hard in training which was all I could really do. And now, obviously, the rewards are there for me.

"I've got to work hard, knuckle down and try and force my way into the side.

"It was great to be involved again. I got 20 minutes or so and it was just disappointing the result didn't turn out better.

"But automatic promotion is still very much on despite this setback.

"We went 20-odd games with only one defeat and now it's up to us to try and go on a similar run between now and the end of the season."

Rovers suffered their first defeat since mid-November after Forest scored twice from set-pieces during a 14-minute spell in the second half.

And Souness was desperately disappointed with the result, coming off the back of an outstanding 5-2 victory at Derby last week.

"To end up losing the game from two set-pieces was very disappointing," said Souness.

"We gave away two free kicks with people going away from our goal and that's not how it should be.

"But we'll learn from that.

"Give Forest credit for the first one, though, because it was well taken and the goalkeeper didn't really have a chance with it.

"But for the second, Brad held his hand up and said he should have come for the cross.

"So it's disappointing because we had a lot of possession in the first half even though we didn't have as many shots as we should have done.

"But I can't point my finger at the players and say they didn't come here and give it the full monty.

"We were going to lose sometime so now it's all about how we react to that."

New-boy Eyal Berkovic made his first appearance in a Rovers shirt as a second half substitute for Alan Mahon at Nottingham.

And, though the Israeli entered the fray in difficult circumstances, he showed a couple of neat touches in the final third to suggest he could be a valuable addition.

"We were chasing the game after going a goal down so it was always going to be difficult," said Souness.

"But you don't need to ask me what Eyal's like.

"I've worked with him before and I know what he's good at and what he's not good at.

"So I'm not going to judge him on 20 minutes."

Souness also explained his reasons for keeping top-scorer Matt Jansen on the bench, even though the England Under 21 striker scored a late consolation to take his tally to 14 for the season.

"When you've got a squad of players a manager has decisions to make and hopefully he gets them right.

"If the team is picking itself then that means you've got injuries and suspensions.

"But right now we have quite a healthy situation," said Souness.

"We chose to play Mark Hughes and Marcus Bent because we feel that's the best pairing away from home at this time.

"But that could change for the next game."

Both Rovers' Academy games at the weekend were called off due to waterlogged pitches. FROM BACK PAGE

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