ROVERS new-boy Peter Whittingham believes the fans can play their part in helping the club achieve their aim of immediate promotion back to the Championship.

Whittingham signed a two-year deal at Ewood Park earlier this week and in doing so became the club’s first summer signing.

The 32-year-old admits Tony Mowbray’s footballing philosophy was behind his decision to swap South Wales for East Lancashire, despite a new contract offer being on the table from the Championship club.

But he’s hoping his stay in League One with Rovers is short, and wants the club’s fans to be on board to help them achieve their aims.

“It’s massively important,” he said of the role the club’s fans can play next term.

“It can give you that five-10% that you need to win games. It’s going to be huge for us and for them, we all just need to muck in together and get results.

“Once you get a couple of results – two or three results – and you start well, then it breeds confidence and it takes you on that little run.

“If you go on that little run of winning three or four games on the bounce, then it fires you straight up the league, so that’s what we need to do.”

Whittingham has been on the opposing side at Ewood Park on six occasions, four times with Cardiff, and once each with Aston Villa and during a loan spell at Burnley.

The most recent of those was on March 7 where he played the full 90 minutes in a 1-1 draw between the two sides.

And Whittingham admits he is looking forward to getting his Rovers career up and running, particularly at Ewood Park.

He added: “The stadium is amazing.

“When you come here, you feel like it is a huge club, so we need to bring those times back and I’m just looking forward to it.”