Never in doubt - Sheffield Wednesday relegation rival had faith in survival goal

Blackburn Rovers boss John Eustace had more faith in his side than many did after they secured another season in the Championship by way of victory over champions Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

It was Birmingham and Huddersfield who suffered the drop on the final day, with Rovers joining Wednesday and Plymouth in celebrating staying up and while many felt that Blackburn were sleepwalking into relegation after a poor run of form late on, Eustace never doubted his team.

Two second-half goals from the division’s top scorer Sammie Szmodics made sure of a win that kept Blackburn up, and sent Eustace’s former club Birmingham into League One.

"It's five defeats in 18 games and that's a fantastic return from when we came in. We had a run of defeats when I came in, we were written off and on our way down. It is very important that people realise that when we came in, we had to change the character, the culture and the environment. A lot of injury problems and people playing through injuries, lacking fitness.

“Every vital point we have picked up, it's now very evident that it keeps you in the league. To have five clean sheets in the last nine is a sensational return, especially with the group having to change personnel at different times.”

“My job was to come in and keep Blackburn up. I didn’t want Birmingham to go down, they are a club close to my heart and I have a lot of friends there,” added Eustace. “But my focus was on here. It’d been a fantastic start to the season to leave Birmingham in sixth position. Now to keep Blackburn up has been a group effort.

“We’ve never doubted ourselves. I didn’t have a clue about the other scores – I wasn’t aware of anyone apart from us. I was very confident we’d be competitive here.”