STEVE Kean insists he won’t give up hope on his fight to keep Junior Hoilett at Blackburn Rovers after watching him fire his side a step closer to Premier League safety.

The 21-year-old contract rebel scored both goals in Rovers’ crucial 2-0 win at Molineux as he deepened the woes at new crisis club Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Hoilett is understood to have a long line of suitors, with his contract out this summer and talks having stalled over a new deal.

Clubs from Germany and Italy have joined a line of English sides waiting to pounce but Kean remains determined to hang on to their “special talent”.

He said: “His performance was fantastic. He is a match winner, he has special feet and I think if you can get him outside the box it is difficult because he has such a low centre of gravity and tidy feet.

“We would love to do something about Junior. We are hopeful. Once we get to the required points tally, hopefully we can go back to him and talk again but at the moment we are just letting him play his football and hopefully we can get him signed once we make sure we are in this division.

“He has been at the academy since 13, we have seen his development and we have a lot of young players. We feel as though that is a theme that should run through our club for years to come.”

Rovers’ first clean sheet of the season saw them move back out of the relegation zone and three points clear of danger, as Hoilett inspired just their second away win of the campaign.

The Canadian was deployed as a striker alongside Yakubu as Kean looked for a repeat of his final days heroics at Molineux last season.

“Last season when he played with Jason Roberts he was outstanding,” said Kean. “I thought Wolves would go 4-4-2 so we wanted to make sure it was difficult for them to get service into the front two, so we played two up front.

“As it happened they didn’t, but we stuck with the way we wanted to play and felt that Junior off the ball caused them a lot of problems and was making it very difficult for them to get any service into Fletcher or into Doyle.

“I think he can play off the front, he is equally as good wide. He likes playing up front and it is not a case he likes it there because it is a rest when he has not got the ball, because right to the last minute he was chasing full backs down and spinning into the channels.”

Meanwhile, Dutch free agent Bolo Zenden has admitted that he has not yet agreed to join Rovers despite an offer from the club.

Rovers are hopeful of tying up a deal for the 35-year-old to join their fight for Premier League survival, but they face competition for his signature and Zenden is prepared to wait for the right deal.

“Blackburn have made me an offer, but we have not yet reached agreement” Zenden said.

“Their interest is very serious.”

“They are in a bad predicament and they need experienced players due to their league position – but that is the same situation for other teams interested in me.”