Blackburn Rovers v Bolton Wanderers - Peter White's big match preview

SCOTT Sellars is partway through a second double date with destiny but the former Blackburn Rovers midfield star believes that, this time, there could be a happy ending.

And the reason for his confidence is that Bolton Wanderers have been to hell and back but have learned from the experiences.

Having seen off one of his former clubs Newcastle on Monday night, Sellars would dearly like to make it a double at Rovers' expense at Ewood tomorrow.

That would certainly make up for the time, just 20 months ago, when Bolton's previous Premiership experience was proving particularly painful and he had to face the same two familiar opponents in successive matches.

Two defeats helped pile on more misery for Wanderers, who were heading straight back down. But there is growing confidence around the Reebok that it could be a different story this time.

Successive victories over Wimbledon and Newcastle inside three days have rocketed Sellars and Bolton into the luxury of mid-table with 19 points.

And it took Wanderers until the beginning of March to achieve such a tally in their last top-flight campaign.

Monday night's victory over Newcastle underlined the transformation and Sellars admitted: "It did make it a bit more satisfying being against Newcastle. But the most important thing was that we won the game in hand which we have had for quite a while. "It was important to win it and, particularly as it was against such a good side as Newcastle, we can take it on from there.

"The last few weeks have seen some good performances and the results haven't been bad.

"Confidence has been gradually coming back. Teams who come into the Premiership have to feel their way but we are getting there now.

"Having said that, we have felt all season that, apart from the games against Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday, we could give as good as we have got.

"We didn't think at any time this season that we would be that far behind everybody else and now we aren't."

It was the game at Hillsborough that probably proved to be the watershed.

Wednesday, incredibly, hammered in five first-half goals.

"After that result we went back to basics," said Sellars.

"We had a look at ourselves and said that we felt we had got the ability but that our organisation had been poor.

"Teams were getting at us too easily but it sometimes happens that you have to hit rock bottom to bounce back and we have done that.

"It couldn't get much worse than being 5-0 down at half time." Since that horrendous first half, Wanderers have tightened up at the back. In fact, they haven't conceded a single goal in their last three Premiership matches.

"Defensively, we have been superb," added Sellars.

"We have hardly conceded any goals at home and that gives you a lot of confidence.

"But it has really been a team effort. The back four were tremendous (against Newcastle) but we defend from the front and the two front lads made it difficult for them to get out."

Seven clean sheets from 16 League games compares favourably with Rovers' defensive record.

And Sellars would no doubt relish another as he revisits Ewood tomorrow, straight after meeting up with more old friends from his Newcastle days.

"It happened last time we were in the Premiership and it's just another game in a sense," he said.

"But I am really looking forward to it, because of the way we are playing at the moment.

"I just hope we can carry on in the same vein."

Sellars was a key figure in Bolton's promotion charge and our Carling Opta file shows that he has lost none of his exciting dribbling and passing skills.

He has an impressive pass completion rate of 81 per cent and an even better 85 per cent for dribbling.

But it also reveals that his final ball has let him down. Of 78 crosses put into the box, only 17 per cent have reached a Bolton player. His record compares badly with Rovers' Jason Wilcox who has a 29 per cent success rate from his crosses.

But he does boast three goal assists in a team who have found scoring difficult at times.

Surprisingly, Sellars has also been booked six times and suffered a three-match ban.

He will be relieved to have put that behind him, for tomorrow's derby is one the midfielder would not have wanted to miss.

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