NEW defender Shane Duffy believes Blackburn Rovers can achieve ‘something special’ this season.

But for now he is setting his sights only on beating Watford and building the momentum he knows Rovers will need to generate if they are to claim promotion.

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Gary Bowyer’s side have yet to win back-to-back matches since the 2014-15 Championship campaign got under way.

But they have the chance to change that on Saturday when they welcome Watford to Ewood Park.

Rovers will go into the game buoyed by their hard-fought 1-0 success over Fulham at the weekend.

And centre back Duffy, who produced a man-of-the-match performance at Craven Cottage on what was his full debut for the club, said: “It’s been brilliant so far, just what I expected.

“I can see why people are thinking we can go far this year and the gaffer keeps saying something special is coming.

“We’ve got a young side and if we can gel I don’t think there’ll be too many teams who can beat us.”

Rovers went down 3-2 to last season’s beaten play-off finalists Derby County last Wednesday before immediately returning to winning ways on Saturday.

The Fulham victory ensured they took six points out of a possible nine after a gruelling week which started with a 3-1 win over Wigan Athletic.

“We’ve played three great teams so to get six points out of nine isn’t bad at all,” said Duffy, who admitted Rovers made ‘hard work’ of overcoming 10-man Fulham.

“We were disappointed to lose to Derby but to bounce back just shows the great character we have got.

“But now my head’s already on Watford. It’s important to keep the momentum going and win the game.

“The Championship is a crazy league, and this year it’s one of the toughest it’s been, but if you can get on a run you never know where you can go.”

Duffy arrived at Rovers on a transfer deadline day from Everton in a deal believed initially be in the region of £300,000.

But it was until not until Saturday’s Cottagers clash, which was settled by prolific striker Jordan Rhodes’ fourth goal in five games, that he was handed his first start.

Duffy responded by playing a starring role as Rovers kept their first clean sheet of the campaign. And the Republic of Ireland international has no doubt further wins will follow if they can continue to shut the opposition out.

“We all said keeping a clean sheet was a priority,” said Duffy, who praised centre-back partner and Rovers captain Grant Hanley for helping him through his first full competitive match since the end of last season, which he spent on loan in the Championship with Yeovil Town.

“When you’ve got Jordan and Rudy (Gestede) up front you know they will always score goals so if we can keep clean sheets we know we will games.

“And, from the lads up front through to the goalkeeper, I thought we all did well.”