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Andrews : Team spirit can overcome lack of finance

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Keith Andrews believes that the team spirit in the Rovers camp can help Blackburn improve on last season’s 10th place finish, even if money is hindering a decent signing or two.

Jogger Keith was part of the squad that banked a solid (and impressive) 10th place finish in last season’s EPL table, beating more wealthy clubs such as Sunderland and Fulham in the process.

But Andrews sees no reason why this cannot be improved upon.

Keith told the Lancashire Telegraph – “The aim has to be improve on last season. We have already touched on it in pre-season. I think it was 42 points the season before last, 50 points last season. We have to see how far we can go.

“We are under no illusions it is going to be very tough. The budget we have at this club is fractions of what other clubs have and to finish 10th was a fine achievement. If we finish there, possibly even higher, it would be fantastic.

“At times the spirit and unity you show as a team, I guess your togetherness, can beat money. We showed that last season.

“We beat Arsenal at the end of last season and yet you look at the money available to them, the squad, the players they can leave out and it is frightening.

“We do need to pull together, rely on our team spirit. We can`t go out and pass Arsenal off the park and expect to get the points because it is just not going to happen nine times out of ten.

“If we play our style, which we know they don`t like and didn`t like, then we know we have a chance of winning. Hopefully in the main we can do that this season and get as high up the table as we can.”

Rovers tackle newly promoted Fleetwood Town tomorrow afternoon as they continue their pre-season preparations and Keith believes that even though the squad hasn’t gone through mass change the familiarity could overcome problems experienced by new players settling in last time out.

But Keith believes team spirit is the key and that the manager should take credit.

Andrews continued – “The spirit has been fantastic, the manager has instilled that and the lads we have are a very good bunch of lads. We all get on very well and people can see that with the way we play together on the pitch.

“It is certainly looking as though it is not going to be wholesale changes like it was last year. Then we needed a bit of time for players to settle and systems to gel.

“Now it is same old same old. We need to crack on because we know each other and are very happy with what we have got. The aim has to be to hit the ground running.

“We thought we could do that last season. It didn`t work out that way though and if anything our last six games were probably perceived as the toughest period of the season and it turned out to be our best period.

“The pressure was on last season because we didn`t start that well. There is no reason why we can`t start where we left off last season.”

Did anyone picture this whole interview conducted in a very strong and stern Irish accent?

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