FORMER Newcastle winger Keith Gillespie plans to do his old club a favour by putting a huge dent in Chelsea's Champions League dreams at Ewood tonight.

Gillespie goes into the game knowing a win for Rovers would virtually secure their place in the Premiership.

But the Northern Ireland international also has an extra incentive for shooting down the Blues because a Blackburn victory would also enhance Newcastle's own chances of finishing in the top four.

"We know that Chelsea are going to be fired up because being in the Champions League obviously generates a lot of money," said Gillespie.

"So they'll be going all out to try and claim that extra place which means it's going to be a very difficult game for us.

"But we feel at home that we are a match for anyone.

"We've started to move in the right direction after recent home wins against Ipswich and Southampton and there's no reason why we can't go out and do something similar again."

Rovers boss Graeme Souness recently dropped Gillespie to the bench because he felt playing two out-and-out wingers in him and Damien Duff left Rovers vulnerable defensively.

However, he restored the 27-year-old to his starting line-up against Southampton last week and his boldness was rewarded by a star performance from the jet-heeled wideman.

"I think the fans like to see two out and out wingers who can attack the full-backs and get crosses into the box," said Gillespie.

"We've got the players up front who can score the goals so it's up to myself and Damien Duff to cause havoc down the flanks and create the chances for opur frontmen to score those goals.

"Times have changed, though, and the manager doesn't actually call us wingers anymore, he prefers to call us wide midfield players because we are expected to get back and help out our own full-backs at times. We haven't been playing with two wingers recently because we've become a bit more defensive minded.

"But it was nice to come back in against Southampton and keep a clean sheet as well."

Rovers go into tonight's game holding a two-point advantage over third-bottom Ipswich with two games in hand.

And Gillespie believes three points against the Londoners would all but guarantee Rovers' survival in light of the Tractor Boys' remaining fixtures.

"Looking at Ipswich's remaining fixtures, you can't see them getting many more points against the three big guns so the safety target could be as low as 36," said the Rovers winger.

"If that's the case then a win tonight would see us safe but we've got to block that out and just try and win the game and then carry that on in our remaining five games after that."