Blackburn Rovers today called on fans to get behind them in a bid to keep the club among the Premiership's leading lights.

Ewood chief executive John Williams has delivered a frank assessment of the state of Rovers in the post-Jack Walker era in an exclusive interview with the Evening Telegraph, .

And, in a direct appeal to the people of the town, he said: 'we need your help if you want this club to remain a leading Premiership force.'

Although the late Mr Walker left Rovers well provided for through a trust fund set-up prior to his untimely death from cancer two years ago, Williams and his board of directors face a constant battle to keep the club among the Premiership's elite.

And, unless they can find a way of boosting revenue by successfully building on the club's existing fan-base, then they may have to cut back on the levels of expenditure they currently plough into wages and transfer fees at some point in the future.

That's the stark reality facing most clubs in football at the moment after the current financial climate has sparked a recession across Europe.

And Williams has warned that Rovers could start to feel the pinch more than most if they slip further behind their Premiership rivals in the attendance stakes over the next few years.

"In absolute terms, our average gates of 26,000 should not be looked upon as anything other than a great success but, in comparative terms with other clubs in the Premiership, it's still not enough," said the Rovers chief, in an exclusive interview with the Evening Telegraph.

"We do need to fill the ground, we do have a capacity close to 31,000, and that difference -- that extra 5,000 -- is worth a great deal of money, which in turn would help us to feel more comfortable about our wages to turnover ratios.

"However, we are also conscious of the relatively high costs of watching football and we have put our prices up above inflation so, going forward, we have to look to increase the volume instead of relying on taking more money from existing loyal customers beyond reasonable and comparable levels."

Rovers topped a recent table produced by finance experts Deloitte and Touche which analysed the amount of money Premiership clubs spend on wages compared to their annual turnover -- although those figures were based on Division One turnover at a time when the club made a conscious to keep a Premier League squad together.

Nevertheless, Williams has since admitted that such a disparity cannot continue indefinitely, stressing the need for the current wage bill to be brought more into line with the amount of revenue coming into the club.

As a result, he plans to make up the shortfall by increasing traffic through the turnstiles on match days rather than cutting back on running costs.

And the club are preparing to launch a 'hearts and minds' campaign to help them achieve that goal with the aim of creating a new generation of Rovers fans.

"We do have to keep a check on the wage bill," said Williams.

"At the moment it's 80 per cent of our turnover which is too high to make any kind of business sense for the medium term.

"We really need to get it down to within 65 to 70 per cent and we'd much rather do that by growing the turnover rather than cutting the costs, because we still want a squad capable of performing at the right end of the Premier League table.

"For that to happen, we need to try and increase the amount of volume through the turnstiles.

"But the people of Blackburn, the town of Blackburn and the businesses of Blackburn all need to come together to help us achieve what I'm talking about as well.

"It's not a cash grant we are looking for, it's support by way of businesses taking boxes or commercial enterprises taking tables in the suites and perhaps offering their work-forces incentives in the form of tickets to come down to games as individuals.

"So we are working on a hearts and minds campaign working under the strapline 'Your town. Your team. You're needed.'

"I don't want it to come over as the club holding out a begging bowl because that's not the case.

"This is not the thermometer on the side of the church scenario, it's about generating fresh support for the overall well-being of the club."

Initially, the first target is to build up the fan-base to such an extent that they can start to put out the 'House Full' signs at Ewood on a more consistent basis.

In the long-term, though, Rovers would like to redevelop the CIS Stand and push the average gate towards the 35,000 mark -- the kind of figure required to sustain a top eight side in the Premiership.

"I don't think there's anyone associated with Blackburn Rovers who doesn't want to complete the development of the stadium and it remains one of the key things we want to do," said Williams.

"But apart from the financial issues, and there are currently limited funds available for redevelopment, there's not much point knocking down a 6,000 capacity stand and rebuilding it with one which holds exactly the same.

"Yes, it would be new and modern and it would have aesthetic value, but we really need the opportunity to build the capacity towards the 35,000 mark.

"So it's rare that a chief executive would say this but my message to the fans is 'make my life difficult.'

"Fill this ground every week and then you can say to us 'the ground is full so why don't you redevelop the old Riverside?'

"That's the challenge I want to throw out to our fans.

"I think we've put down a good foundation to go forward and I don't see any reason why we can't win new fans by consistency on the pitch and I don't just mean in BB1 areas, we will simultaneously be looking at the wider Lancashire catchment area .

"I don't think 35,000 is beyond us and we need to get gates of that level if we want to remain a side who can have top players in it."