RED-hot Rudy Gestede is greedy for more goals after Blackburn Rovers’ towering targetman rose to boss Gary Bowyer’s challenge to reach double figures before the end of the campaign.

The 6ft 4in striker made it six goals in his last six starts and 10 for the term when he scored the first hat-trick of his career in Rovers’ season-saving 4-2 win at Birmingham City on Monday.

But Gestede, a £300,000 bargain buy from Cardiff City in January, has no intention of easing up – not now Bowyer’s side are back in with a sniff of the play-offs.

“The manager asked me to get to double figures and now I have done this with two games to go, hopefully I can score more goals for the team,” said the Benin international.

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“I am very happy to have 10 goals, it is my best return since I started playing football, and from January it isn’t bad.

“We’ve got two games to play, we’ve got a chance to get into the play-offs, and we have to take it.

“We don’t need to think about the other results, we’ve just got to try to win both games and we’ll see where we are at.”

Eight of the 10 goals Gestede has netted in 26 matches for Rovers have come with his head.

After his hat-trick of headers against Birmingham the 25-year-old even joked his best foot was his head.

But Bowyer insists there is a lot more to the popular striker’s game.

“He’s such a threat in the air but I don’t want people just saying that about him because he’s much more than that,” said Bowyer, who has guided Rovers on a 10-match unbeaten league run, the club’s best since 2001.

“We said that when we brought him in and we’ve got to keep giving him the confidence to believe that he’s not just a targetman. He can link it up and he can run the channels.

“He can get better in his all-round game but we’re just delighted we brought him to the club.”

Gestede was quick to praise Craig Conway for the role the wing wonder played in his St Andrew’s treble.

Conway set-up two of the big forward’s three goals on Monday with pinpoint set-pieces deliveries.

That meant the Scotland international took his tally of assists up to eight in 16 games since following Gestede from Cardiff in January for a knockdown £100,000.

“Craig keeps putting the balls in the right position and I’m very happy to play with him,” said Gestede, who came off against Birmingham in the 59th minute as a precaution with a tight groin.

“But he can do more as he can score goals. He gives us power on the pitch.”