STEVE Kean is hoping his Blackburn Rovers side can enjoy a smashing Premier League finish after insisting their sunshine break will reap its rewards.

Rovers squad spent a week in Dubai ‘recharging their batteries’, including nights out at the tennis, horse-racing and days playing head tennis on the beach.

The Rovers boss insists plenty of hard training was also done and revealed medically speaking the trip has already proved beneficial.

He said: “Our break in Dubai went really well. From a medical point of view I have been told vitamin D levels were very high in the lads when they come back due to the sunshine.

“The lads have not been in the sunshine this season, and Michel Salgado was the only one who had a high level of Vitamin D before because he has been back and forward a few times.

“Everyone’s levels were very low. I don’t know physiologically what it does but there is not a spring in your step and there is a general flatness.

“You can try and have events at home, you can go go karting or paintballing but the top and bottom of it is it is still freezing. We did some different types of training. We did lots of head tennis, quite ferocious on the sand and you can’t do that anywhere in this country.

“The lads also took time to go out and watch the tennis, there was a ladies Dubai classic on and the lads went to watch that. Each evening they were watching a different sport, they were at the horse racing.

“There were lots of events that were good for us to go as group. Everyone was travelling together doing different things and working as well.”

Rovers travel to Villa Park this afternoon looking to end their four-match winless run as they sit 11th in the Premier League, just five points clear of safety and seven points away from seventh spot.

“We are conscious we need points,” he said. “The cup games at Villa have not been great for us but we have the won the last three league games against them and we are trying to focus on that.

“We need to focus on approaching the game in a positive manner, we can’t be afraid to get beat. "We are not going to sit back and invite pressure because that is just waiting for a team to beat us. We will set our stall out to get a positive result.

“The league is very tight and there are a lot of big clubs underneath us. "We know we have to get to 40 points as quickly as possible and then see if we can kick on.”