CALLUM Davidson today shrugged off the so-called pressures of battling to beat the drop and vowed: "I'm sure we can stay up."

The Scottish international defender has now lost his Ewood full back partner Jeff Kenna - probably for the rest of the season - and serious injuries continue to haunt manager Brian Kidd's squad.

But Davidson believes Rovers are good enough to win the scrap against relegation, even though he accepts it could go right to the last match.

And he emphasised that the only real pressure on the players is what they always put on themselves anyway.

"Of course there is pressure in games, but only because you want to win," he explained.

"You're so desperate to win you always put that pressure on yourself.

"The relegation situation doesn't really come into it.

"You just want to win games.

"I think about it myself because I don't want to be down there in the relegation zone, I want to be up at the top of the table. So I put pressure on myself to do well and to succeed."

Injuries continue to make life even more difficult for everyone.

Kenna, who has a torn calf muscle and inflammation of the Achilles tendon, was told yesterday that he can expect to be out for around two months - joining Garry Flitcroft and Billy McKinlay in a similar position.

And that's another body blow

"It's not an excuse, but we have had loads of injuries, especially to key players; the experienced ones you look to at a time like this," said Davidson.

"And that's no disrespect to any other players.

"It's going to be tough because you look to that kind of player for help and experience.

"The manager has made some good buys and the run we had wasn't a fluke.

"But, just as we were getting a shape, we had injuries again and we don't seem to be able to keep the same team week in, week out.

"We have to make changes all the time. It's hard, especially with new players coming in, getting to know the way they play and the movements they make

"But I still think we have a good enough team anyway.

"We were down after Wednesday's game but we have to forget about it and look forward to the next one.

"Although we are still far from safe, we knew that it was going to go all the way to the end of the season and we have to try to take points from every game.

"I'm sure we can stay up."

The players will get all the help they need from manager Brian Kidd who said: "The lads are in a good mood and we are trying to keep them upbeat.

"It's for me to take the pressure, not the players, and I am quite relaxed.

"I don't worry about things that aren't under my control, I only deal with the things that are. I've seen a lot of things and I think I had a good apprenticeship in that from Alex Ferguson."

Kidd is continuing his search for new players but has warned other clubs that he will not pay silly money, or be panicked into signing someone he does not believe will be a future asset as well as a present one.

"I will not think about anybody unless I feel he has a future with Rovers," he said.

"And everybody in football is doubling their prices. Clubs know our situation but I am not going to compromise the club."

Kidd also believes he would already have enough quality to keep Rovers up if it wasn't for the injury problems.

"If we could get a few back from injury, and it's a big 'if', I don't think we would have a problem," he added.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.