TONIGHT'S game against CSKA Sofia has been a long time coming for me.

Four years after my last 'taste' of European club football, I'm hoping to make my UEFA Cup debut -- if selected!

And a couple of good performances against the best team in Bulgaria wouldn't do my England chances any harm at all.

For a club the size of Blackburn, four years is a long time to be out of Europe.

I'll certainly never forget my one and only previous experience of UEFA Cup football.

As a young lad, I was thrilled to be named among the substitutes for our away tie against Lyon in 1998 because just to be involved was a fantastic experience.

At the time, I was being as a front player by Roy Hodgson so when we were chasing the game and needed a goal I thought I was in with a great chance of coming on.

Suddenly, Roy told the subs to warm up and I thought 'this is it' but when it came to making the change he threw on Tiny instead as an emergency centre forward and I've since had to wait four years for my chance to come round again.

So I'm desperate to do well tonight.

I know the UEFA Cup isn't as important as the Premiership but that doesn't mean we won't be giving it full throttle.

As a professional footballer, you want to win every game you play in and the manager is no different so don't be fooled by any talk that we'll be taking this lightly.

We owe it to the directors, the fans and most importantly, ourselves, to give a good account against CSKA.

We worked hard to get this opportunity and we don't want to blow it now.

More to the point, it's also vital we bounce back quickly from Sunday's disaster at Maine Road.

I still can't believe we managed to throw away two points so easily against 10-men.

The manager, quite justifiably, was absolutely seething afterwards and made his feelings known in no uncertain terms.

We simply can't afford to throw away points like that otherwise we could find ourselves scrapping for our lives again at the bottom of the table which is not where we want to -- or should -- be.

But the best way to get a result and performance like that out of your system is to win your next game.

And that's why tonight's match is so important to us on a number of different levels.

Although the last couple of results have been disappointing, one of the plus points to come out of it has been the form of David Thompson.

I think Tommo has been superb so far and he already feels like part of the furniture.

He's a great lad to have around the dressing room because he's a real character.

And you need people like that in your team if you want to be successful.

Hopefully, he will have recovered in time to feature tonight.