CHIEF executive John Williams today hailed Blackburn Rovers 'brilliant' fans as the Ewood faithful throw their weight behind Graeme Souness's promotion charge.

After the disappointments of last season, Rovers were anticipating a backlash through the turnstiles as they face another year out of the top-flight.

But, in an astonishing show of faith, supporters have stuck by the club and snapped up 12,000 season tickets -- a similar figure to last season -- ahead of the new campaign.

Only Wolverhampton Wanderers have sold more tickets in the First Division this summer.

And Williams believes the supporters response is just the tonic manager Graeme Souness and his squad need with the big kick-off just five days away.

"We are absolutely delighted with the response from our supporters," said Williams.

"It's a tremendous achievement by our fans and I hope we can build on that by increasing our matchday sales.

"It's a great boost for Graeme and all the squad to know the fans are behind them. With the costs of running a football club in this day and age, it's absolutely vital to have a good supporter base.

"And I believe we can regularly attract gates of 20,000 plus provided we get off to a good start.

"To get 12,000 is a brilliant achievement.

"It's considerably more than people had predicted after what happened last season."