BLACKBURN Rovers are intent on revenge tonight as Manchester City prepare to descend on Ewood in the fourth round of the Worthington Cup.

The last time the two sides met in May last year, City staged a party at Ewood after clinching promotion back to the Premiership following a 4-1 win.

A lot may have changed since then with both sides swapping places on the football ladder.

But images of that fateful afternoon are still fresh in the memories of most Blackburn fans.

And assistant boss Tony Parkes hopes the team can set the record tonight by booking a place in the quarter finals at City's expense.

"It's a little bit of a grudge match for us and we need to turn them over tonight in light of what happened at Ewood 18 months ago," said Parkes.

"We felt it was a travesty that we got beat 4-1 that day.

"It could have gone the other way quite easily and it's not very nice to see 8,000 visiting fans dominating your stadium like that.

"So we didn't enjoy that experience and we feel it's time we had some success to celebrate ourselves."

With a place in the quarter finals at stake for the winners, both camps look on this competition as a possible passport into Europe.

And England legend Stuart Pearce has fuelled the physiological warfare in the build up to kick-off by insisting all the pressure is on Rovers to perform.

"In some ways there is less pressure on us in Cup games," said Pearce.

"We are certainly the underdogs in this game and our priority this year is the League and getting out of the First Division.

"So in some ways we can go there, the pressure is off us and, because we are underdogs, the pressure is on them."

Rovers boss Graeme Souness may have used previous rounds to give some of his fringe players a run-out.

Tonight, however, he looks set to name a team closer to his full-strength side, with a couple of possible exceptions.

"It's a chance to change things around a little bit but we won't be altering too much because we want to progress to the last eight," said Parkes.

"This competition is probably not as important as being in Europe or the Premiership but it's certainly an important one to us.

"And I think, like all competitions, it becomes more and more important as you progress.

"People might play weakened teams in the early rounds but once you get to the last 16 those sides suddenly become stronger.

"And in our case, that's exactly what will be happening tonight."

City old-boy Garry Flitcroft, Italian striker Ciccio Grabbi and Australian defender Lucas Neill are again absent.

And Henning Berg is unlikely to be risked from the start after picking up a calf strain against Chelsea on Saturday.

Rovers (from): Friedel, Curtis, Johansson, Berg, Taylor, Short, Hignett, Bjornebye, Jansen, Hughes, Mahon, Duff, Gillespie, Johnson, Tugay, Dunn, Kelly.

City boss Kevin Keegan has problems in attack with Paul Dickov (rib), Paulo Wanchope (knee) and leading scorer Shaun Goater (groin) all ruled out through injury.

City (from): Weaver, Dunne, Wiekens, Mettomo, Pearce, Neqouai, Wright-Phillips, Benarbia, Berkovic, Tiatto, Horlock, Huckerby, Mike, Killen, Toure, Nash, Granville, Ritchie, Etuhu, Shuker, Cooke.