FORMER Ewood favourite Jeff Kenna today said Birmingham City should look on Rovers as their role models as they attempt to survive their first season in the Premiership.

Kenna and his newly-promoted Blues team-mates are hot favourites for the drop according to most bookmakers.

But, as they prepare for tomorrow's clash at St Andrews, the 31-year-old defender has pointed to the achievements of his old club as an example of what can be achieved if you put your mind to it.

"I know you can't compare the two clubs directly because most of our squad haven't played in the Premiership before whereas a lot of the Rovers lads had," said Kenna.

"But teams like Blackburn are still a role model for clubs like ours.

"They came up from the First Division and had a fantastic season last year even though they flirted with relegation for a while.

"And that gives us hope that if we can hang in there over the course of the season and get on a little run at some point then there's no reason why we can't finish above the relegation zone.

"Finishing 17th would be a fantastic achievement for us and that's what we've got to set our sights on -- starting with a win tomorrow in our first home game."

After Arsenal gave City a rude awakening on the opening day of the season, Kenna admits City are now apprehensive about the prospect of taking on a Rovers side overloaded with attacking talent.

And he is backing his old club to do even better than last season's 10th place now that former Manchester United star Dwight Yorke has joined Graeme Souness's Ewood revolution.

"Somebody said after Sunday's game 'Don't worry lads! We've only got Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and Damien Duff to worry about next Saturday,'" quipped Kenna.

"But, seriously, attacking-wise Rovers are a superb team and it's a case of 'how high do you want to go?' as far as they are concerned.

"After bringing in Dwight Yorke, their forward line is fantastic now.

"I know Matt Jansen is currently coming back from a serious injury but when he returns they'll have three top quality strikers who are capable of playing in virtually every other team in the Premiership.

"So Graeme has plenty of attacking options and I was personally delighted to hear that Damien Duff plans to sign a new contract next week, too.

"We've just got to hope we can cause them a few problems of our own at the back.

"Every team has a weakness somewhere and we've got to try and get at their back four and disrupt them that way."