AFTER months of staring at the walls in the treatment room, now the waiting is finally over.

Footballers live for three o'clock on a Saturday and our game against Wolves at the weekend can't come soon enough for me.

It's been a long road back to full fitness but all the blood, sweat and tears of the last few months will be worth it if we are celebrating three points come 5pm on Saturday.

When I first went in for my operation last season, I never expected to be out for so long.

But now all that's behind me and I can't wait for the action to get underway as we gear up for what promises to be a thrilling Premiership scrap.

Chelsea have certainly stirred things up with all the cash they've been spending over the summer. But money doesn't necessarily buy you success -- that's been proved in the past.

I'm not interested in anyone else, though. All I'm bothered about right now is Blackburn Rovers and trying to emulate last season's achievements.

We know that's going to be tough because we probably achieved more than we ever expected.

But we are going the right way and slow progress is the best way forward.

I'd be lying if I said losing Damien Duff and David Dunn over the summer wasn't a major blow -- especially Duffer.

Dunny was injured for most of last season and we seemed to have a settled midfield anyway.

But Duffer was different. When games were tight you could just give him the ball because he was always an outlet so you're always going to miss a player like that.

However, we've now got another force down the right in Brett Emerton once he settles in and gets his full fitness.

He can run all day, he's fast, and he puts great crosses in so we are just going to have to re-adjust.

I don't think we're in too bad shape, though, going into the opening game.

We've just beaten a decent side in Chievo and kept a clean sheet into the bargain which is an obvious a plus.

But there's still loads more to come. We are not firing at all. Andy Cole has been injured for the last few games, Yorkie's only just coming into full fitness, although he's shown signs in training that he's going to come good.

So fitness-wise we are not too bad but form-wise we are a little bit behind, although that only comes with competitive games.

In the meantime, I was delighted with my goal against Chievo on Sunday.

Just before I scored, Dean Saunders shouted to me 'Go and get us a winner' and I was thinking to myself 'I'm absolutely knackered here.'

But Gally then nodded one down to me, I just lashed it, and it was probably one of the best goals I've ever scored -- similar to the one I scored in Bulgaria last season.

I don't think I've scored many better goals than them and the one on Sunday was with my left peg, too, which made it doubly pleasing. That was also the leg that got operated on so it felt great to get a goal with it.

As for me playing on the left, I wouldn't mind playing there, to be honest.

I played there for a full season when I was at Coventry and I had my best ever goals return -- 14, if I remember rightly.

So it's not strange to me and, when I'm fully fit, I think I can do a lot better.

I didn't play that well on Sunday so I'm not kidding myself. I'm still way short of where I want to be.

I'm giving the ball away at times and I'm not receiving it because I'm not comfortable on it at the moment.

But that only comes with getting games so, hopefully, the more games I get, the better I'll become because I'm still way short of the form I was showing last season.