I'VE never been one to count my chickens but I think we can safely say it's 'mission accomplished' now in terms of securing our place in the Premiership.

Finishing in the top six is certainly not out of the question yet but the main thing is we've stayed up for another season.

Although it's not mathematically certain, I can't see any of the bottom four getting past the 43 point marker, but that's not our cue to sit back and relax - far from it, in fact.

We're all winners at this football club so we don't just want to stay up, we want to go as far as we possibly can with this team, which means picking up as many points as possible between now and May 11.

The pressure of avoiding relegation has now been lifted from our shoulders which should give us the opportunity to really express ourselves in these last nine games.

And believe me, all the players are well aware of the importance of keeping our season alive for the sake of the fans, too.

It's not cheap coming to watch a game of football anymore, particularly if you've got a young family and you're having to fork out a lot of money to bring them down to Ewood.

So there's no way we want to take our foot off the pedal because we want to give the fans something back in return for their continued support.

Looking at the table, I don't see any reason why we can't mount a charge for Europe over the next couple of months.

At the moment, Charlton are in that coveted sixth spot but they're only two points ahead of us and they've still got to visit Ewood yet.

On paper, our remaining fixtures would appear to be tough with visits to Manchester United and Newcastle still to come, not to mention next week's game against Arsenal at Ewood.

But by the same token, our record against the top sides is excellent this season.

We've already beaten four of the top five remember!

Don't forget we've still got Duffer to come back yet and there's plenty more to come from Hakan Sukur, too, as he regains his full match fitness.

So there's still plenty to look forward to and I, for one, plan to relish every second of it.

Because of all my injury problems, it feels as though the season has never fully got going for me so this is my big chance to make up for lost time.

I've enjoyed our break in Marbella. It's been great to get away from things for a few days, get a bit of sun on our backs, and reflect on recent events.

But I've had far too much thinking time recently during my long stints in the treatment room so I can't wait to get back to business again.