FORMER Ewood boss Don Mackay reckons he knows the secret of Premiership survival - positive thinking.

Mackay, manager of relegation battle regulars Coventry City in the mid-1980s, has the qualifications to back up his claims.

And he believes Blackburn Rovers can still stay up if they approach the run-in with the right attitude.

He also said this afternoon's game against a Nottingham Forest side already down could be the hardest of their three remaining fixtures.

At the end of the 1984-85 season, Coventry, under Mackay, needed eight points from their last three games against relegated Stoke, mid-table Luton and champions Everton - a programme similar to that facing Rovers.

And they won them all!

"We were as low as you could have expected," he said. "It was a similar scenario to Rovers as we looked as though we had fought our way out of trouble only to slip back down.

"But we took a positive attitude that we could beat Stoke and take it from there. There wasn't a player in the club who didn't believe we could do it.

"We made sure it was in our minds that we could win three in a row even though we hadn't done it before that season.

"Blackburn have to adopt the same approach, starting against Forest.

"We felt we had better players than Stoke. We had some good quality in the likes of Cyril Regis, Stuart Pearce and Trevor Peake.

"Blackburn are the same and, if they go about it the right way, they can do it. Then it's only six points to get."

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