MATT Kilgallon says Blackburn Rovers’ FA Cup quarter final with Liverpool has put the club ‘back on the football map’ – and given them the confidence to go for promotion next season.

Rovers’ cup run ended on Wednesday night as they were edged out by the Reds in front of a sell-out crowd of 28,415 at Ewood Park.

Gary Bowyer’s men travel to Reading in the Championship tomorrow but some thoughts are now turning to the long term, with Rovers 14 points behind the play-off places with six games left.

Kilgallon hopes to earn a new deal to remain at Rovers beyond the summer and believes both the cup run and the way fans filled Ewood should give everyone belief that the future is bright for the club.

“We’ve put Blackburn back on the football map,” said the defender, who captained Rovers against Liverpool in front of the live television cameras.

“We’re very proud of the cup run and it was brilliant to play in front of a full house.

“Hopefully we can get that all the time now and start getting better and better.

“Now next season is going to be massive for us. We want to go up next season and this gives us confidence.

“If we work as hard as that every week, we’re going to be right up there.”

Rovers’ average attendance this season currently stands at 14,987 - the eighth lowest in the Championship but a slight increase on the 14,960 average for last season.

Kilgallon says the Liverpool tie has given the whole Rovers squad a taste for playing top teams in a full house – something that perhaps only the Premier League brings on a regular basis.

“Playing those teams pulls the crowds in and there’s no better thing than playing in front of all the fans and playing against the top players,” he said.

“The fans gave us that extra boost, I didn’t hear the Liverpool fans all night to be honest.

“It makes a massive difference.”

Rovers missed out on the chance to play at Wembley, with Liverpool now facing Aston Villa in the semi finals at the national stadium.

But, with players playing for contracts and the club keen to finish as high as possible, Kilgallon says there is still plenty of motivation to perform well in the final games of the season.

“We’ve got six games left now and we need to win them all, everyone is battling for their place for next year now,” he said.

“We were gutted to lose on Wednesday, you don’t get many opportunities in your career, it goes fast.

“To have an opportunity like that to have a great run like we did and maybe get into the semi finals, then getting beaten by a goal when they didn’t really break us down, the lads are gutted.

“But we gave good account of ourselves, we’re a good team and we fancied ourselves on the quiet.

“Everyone did their families proud.”