ROVERS defender Henning Berg today expressed his delight at the fact the club will be playing Premiership football once again next season.

Manchester United's victory over Ipswich on Saturday night assured Rovers of their place in the top flight.

And now the Norwegian international has set his sights on trying to emulate the example set by Newcastle next season.

"It's fantastic news that we are in this league again next year," said Berg.

"It was a big relief when United beat Ipswich on Saturday night because we've all felt the pressure and we didn't feel we should have been in that position in the first place.

"However, when you're in it, it's hard but thankfully our results have been good over the last few weeks, the team has been solid and we eventually got enough points to stay in this league.

"So the win at Everton on Sunday was a bonus.

"But now we have to make sure we're not in this position again.

"We should be mid-table and upwards. If you look at the big games this season and the teams we've played, we should be challenging for sixth or seventh place next season.

"If we can do that then it will be a really good season. And if we do even better than that then it will have been a really great season.

"So our standards have got to be around maybe where Newcastle finished this season.

"They probably would have been happy finishing fifth, sixth or seventh but instead they've qualified for the Champions League by finishing fourth and it's turned out to be a fantastic season for them.

"If we can start in the same way as Newcastle did then who knows what could happen."

In order for that to happen, however, Berg believes Rovers need to maximise the talents of certain individuals in the squad and perform more consistently as a team.

"If you look at the personnel we've got here, we've got some fantastic players individually but we have to do a lot better as a team, collectively.

"It's very, very frustrating when you've been in the position we have knowing you can do a lot better as a team and should be in the top half of the table, maybe challenging for a European place."