STEVE Kean believes his Blackburn Rovers youngsters will have ‘grown up’ after last season’s struggles as he bids to get his top 10 hopes off to a flying start.

Rovers kick off their Premier League campaign at home to Wolves this afternoon and, having only avoided the drop with victory at the same opponents on the final day of last season, Kean insists they have all learnt from that experience.

After succeeding Sam Allardyce as manager midway through last season, Kean and his Rovers side experienced some tough times as an 11-match winless streak saw them drop into relegation trouble.

But, having saved their skins with some encour-aging displays towards the end, Kean believes his young players will only be stronger for the experience.

He said: “We would have finished top six on our first half results but we were bottom on our second half results. We need to be mentally tougher in the second half.

“With some young players maybe you can be naive at times and we showed that at times.

“They have come through that now, we have showed them where that happened and that comes with experience. If you talk them through that they will be better for that experience.

“Last season’s experience will help them grow up. Now the lads have been through that tough experience, they acquitted themselves well, and they will be stronger.

“You speak with Ryan Nelsen, who was injured, and he couldn’t watch. Some times he had to leave the stadium because of the pressure he was feeling. The young guys took it in their stride and it will help them be better players.”

Rovers go into today’s clash having made their third signing of the summer, with Brazilian full-back Bruno Ribeiro joining on a free transfer.

A lot has been said about Rovers’ ambitions under new owners Venky’s with the poultry giants and Kean initially talking about long term goals of one day returning to Europe.

Kean though insists their immediate goals are far more down to earth as they look to break into the Premier League top 10.

He said: “I have sat with the owners at great lengths. I have been there 11 times now and we have spoken about how we want to move forward.

“It is unrealistic to think all the young lads will be in the team at the same time but what we want to do is have a blend and we have some top senior pros and some very good younger guys as well.

“If we put all the younger guys in at the same time we could have an average age of 21, 22, but I would like to stress they will get mixed in. It won’t always be the senior team that will play and it won’t always be the young it will be a mix.

“I think at the end of last year we played a lot good stuff but we have analysed the amount of games we drew and that was the biggest disappointment.

"We never got an even spread of wins, draws and defeats and it is nothing to do with fitness.

“The aim this season is definitely top half of the table.

"We want to be going for two good cup runs and assembling a squad that is good enough for all these targets.”