ELLIOTT Bennett believes the Rovers players have re-established a rapport with the supporters and says that bond can prove decisive in the fight for promotion.

Rovers took 884 fans to Portsmouth in midweek and have been cheered on by nearly 30,000 supporters on their travels so far this campaign.

And Bennett says that support does not go unnoticed, home and away.

The midfielder regularly communicates with supporters on social media and hopes the relationship with the fans can translate into promotion.

“To take nearly 900 fans down to Portsmouth on a really, really horrible Tuesday is fantastic,” said Bennett. “They have been fantastic all season for us, sometimes when it hasn’t been going well the support from the away end and also at home has really got us through.

“The gaffer has come in and has been really firm on the fact that you can’t do anything without the supporters but you have got to give them something to shout about and I think we have really tried to do that and the relationship has really started to build.

“We need the fans, we are at the business end of the season now and they are going to be vital to us.”

Rovers supporters have had little to cheer about in recent seasons and Bennett is keen to see the good times return to Ewood Park, and says the players know their responsibility to atone for last season’s relegation.

“This football club has been at the peak of its powers, it has won the Premier League and maybe over the last few years it has not gone the way everyone connected with Blackburn Rovers would like it to,” he said.

“Without the fans you haven’t got a football club.

“They turn up, pay hard earned money, get back at silly hours in the morning and get up and go to work the next day.

“When you are travelling down to Portsmouth and there is that many fans down there and we win then it is only right that we all go over.

“I think quite a few of the lads threw their shirts in the crowd and it is not giving someone their time back or their money back but it is a little gesture of thanks.”

Bennett is an active social media user and has become a fan favourite during his time at Rovers.

Part of that is down to his communication with supporters, whatever the result, and the 29-year-old sees that fan engagement as part of the job.

“I am who I am,” he added. “I am an honest person, if I have been bad I will say I have been terrible. If I have been good I will say I have been alright.

“Whether you win lose or draw, if people are paying money to come and watch you they deserve you to say thanks.

“If it wasn’t a good game, then fans want to know why and why should it always be the manager that has to front up and take all the flak. He is not playing.

“There are 11 footballers out there and if you haven’t been good on the day or you have made a mistake then I am the first to hold my hands up.

“I am not going to shy away from it and if they want to give me a Twitter battering then I am not going to come back and say they don’t know what they are talking about because everyone is entitled to their opinion. “