LEE Carsley claimed Blackburn Rovers' destiny was firmly in their own hands as they prepared to launch Ewood's new First Division campaign against Port Vale this afternoon.

"The sooner we accept that, at the moment, we are a First Division team battling to get out of that division, the sooner we'll be all right," said the midfielder who has previously achieved promotion with Derby.

"What we need is a big squad all focused and all pushing for the same thing.

"It's all about us this season. If we can get enough people who want to go the same way, we'll be okay

"If we can do our own thing, we have the players here who can win games.

"So, instead of approaching games and worrying too much about the other team, we have to sort ourselves out first." Rival bosses reckon this season's First Division promotion race could be the toughest for ages with an abundance of genuine challengers.

"Every season they say this division is getting harder," said Carsley.

"But every division is getting harder. The standard of football and fitness is increasing so it's bound to.

"But if we can go about our own game properly we'll be all right.

"People forget that we still have injured players to come back, so our squad is only going to improve.

"There are 46 League games and it's going to be impossible to play every game. We are going to need a big squad and to rest players or rotate them.

"But we're lucky to have the resources to do that, whereas a lot of teams haven't."

Rovers appealed to fans not to leave it until the last-minute to arrive at Ewood for this afternoon's game. There was some congestion before the Liverpool game last Saturday, caused by many late arrivals.

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