I was so happy to see him back in the Rovers team on Saturday because they're going to need him in the final push to avoid relegation.

He has made a fantastic start to his career in the Premiership, not just because of the fact that he's scoring - but the way he's scoring.

The one at Aston Villa at the weekend was so well placed. It's the second of his three that he's stuck in the corner and he's done it so confidently and deliberately.

That's what impresses me most, Stead's a very deliberate finisher.

If he can take his scoring rate on to the end of the season and get around the seven to 10-goal mark, it should be enough to make sure Rovers stay up. And that will mean he's been a great bonus to the team.

When Andy Cole arrived, he scored the goals that kept Rovers up - as well as winning the Worthington Cup - and for that reason I'll always see Cole as a good signing.

But Stead at the moment will be absolutely buzzing and, more importantly, the people in the team will be buzzing as well.

As a defender you like having form strikers like him in the side because you know that if you keep a clean sheet at your end he's likely to grab one at the other.

I don't want to talk him up too much but the lad looks comfortable with it all and Graeme Souness has already talked about how confident and relaxed he looks in training.

He's enjoying it, especially coming up from the level he has, but I don't think he will let it go to his head because he'll already know that the Premiership is quite a standard to come into.

So now it's all about him and his team-mates staying fit. Stead and Flitcroft were back in the side and scored the goals at Villa, and if Gallagher and Amoruso return this weekend, Rovers will have their key men back.

Of course, the battle to stay up will be made a lot easier with a win over Portsmouth at Ewood Park this Saturday but they will be fired up for it.

They had a lovely result against Southampton and though they haven't won away, my response to that is, 'they're due one'.

If you're playing a roulette wheel and the ball lands in the black seven or eight times then the law of averages says it will land in the red at some point, so Rovers have to beware.

Three points for Portsmouth will really drag them back into it but Blackburn should already be preparing as if they have to win their last game.

They have to be mentally ready to face that if it goes down to the wire, but they have got what it takes to stay up.