A CONFIDENT Martin Olsson believes a new physical and mental strength has boosted his own Premier League dreams – while insisting Rovers’ Carling Cup pain will not threaten their top-flight status.

Rovers’ Swedish sensation starred in Wednesday night’s cruel Carling Cup semi-final defeat, scoring a spectacular overhead kick, and claims only positives should be taken from their incredible 6-4 defeat.

The 21-year-old has emerged as a real first team contender in recent weeks, having been pulled out of the firing line after Sam Allardyce’s appointment as Rovers boss just over a year ago, and admits his own confidence is sky-high.

He also revealed his recent improvement, after a forgettable period last season, can be put down to extra strength work with fellow starlet Junior Hoilett as he looks to build on his memorable last couple of weeks.

He said: “My goal was pretty nice! Of course for me my confidence will go up.

"Of course we lost but if I score I will be thinking positive and hopefully playing better and better in every game.

“My aim for the rest of the season? Just to get more games.

"As long as I’m in the team or on the bench and coming on, I’ll just be happy because I’m enjoying playing right now and how the team is playing as well.

“Me and Junior Hoilett have been in doing more weights and working on our two-touch.

"That’s what we’ve been doing every day, and just after

target="_blank">training we’ve been working on some crosses.

“My confidence is high now after the manager put me back into the team. It just feels much better than last year.”

Rovers boss Sam Allardyce will be urging his players to put Wednesday night’s cruel exit out of their minds as they look to build on their current 12th position in the Premier League.

Olsson though insists that should be no problem, claiming the squad should only take confidence from a dramatic evening of football at Villa Park.

He said: “I think we shouldn’t be that upset because we worked hard and created chances as well, even if we had a man sent off.

"We just have to take this into the Wigan game. It’s at home as well where we are very strong. That’s where we have been playing our best football.

“We’ve got some home games coming up and we’re strong at home, so if we play like we did on Wednesday night for the first 20 or 30 minutes and a bit of the second half, we can get wins.”