Danny Graham marked three years as a Rovers player this week, and is hoping to carry on his impressive 2018 form in this calendar year.

The striker scored his 47th goal in Rovers colours in the win over Ipswich Town, the club managed by the man who brought him to Ewood Park in January 2016, Paul Lambert.

Graham, brought in as Jordan Rhodes was departing the club, has become a firm favourite among the club’s fans and moved in to double figures for the third consecutive season with his penalty against the Tractor Boys. He finished 2018 with 18 goals, six more than in 2017 and more than the 16 he managed in 2016.

It is his all-round play which has made him a fixture in the starting line-up and enough to activate an extra year in the contract he signed last summer.

Reflecting on an excellent 2018, both personally and for Rovers, he said: “It probably was (my best year for some time). Not just the goals, but the assists and all-round play was probably the best it’s been in a long time.

“I got a lot of assists in there as well and it’s given me something to work towards in 2019.

“I would say this is one of the happiest times (of my career). My spell at Swansea was great but coming here on the back of my Sunderland experience where nothing seemed to go to plan and get my career back on track, Blackburn is a special place and I’m delighted to still be around.”

Graham has started 21 of Rovers’ 28 Championship fixtures. However, he had started just seven of their first 23 last season, before becoming a regular in the second half of the promotion campaign.

“Looking back to the first three months in League One I was out of the team and finding it hard. He (Tony Mowbray) always told me that if I worked hard and doing well in training then I would get my chance,” he added.

“When I got my chance I haven’t looked back and that’s probably down to the gaffer.

“He keeps me on my toes, there are a lot of young players who he signed who want to play up front and that’s helped me. I’m not ready to give up my spot and I won’t be in the next 18 months.”

Graham’s role in the Rovers team is now as important as ever, as they enter the final 18 game of this season six points off the play-offs.

Whether his game has changed in his three years at the club, he added: “I probably work a bit harder, but I don’t think a lot has changed, I’ve always been a bit of a target man that tries to get the team up the pitch and bring others in to play.

“Since the gaffer has come in it’s worked really well. Whether that’s the gaffer getting the team to play in a way that suits me, or I’ve taken my game to a different point where I feel comfortable and confident.

“Even when I don’t play I always feel I can come on and create something for the team, or help them in the right areas.

“I think the fans have been really good to me. From a personal level I can’t really thank them enough.”