GRAEME Le Saux is desperate to put his personal frustrations behind him and help Blackburn restore their battered Champions League pride against Spartak Moscow tomorrow.

The England full back was forced into an unwanted spectator's role by the ankle injury that kept him out of 10 games, including the defeat in Rosenborg and the two games against Legia Warsaw that spelt the end of Blackburn's once-bright European hopes.

But the 27-year-old defender returned to starting action with a stunning goal as Rovers thumped Nottingham Forest 7-0 on Saturday.

And, as he prepared to step out in the Luzniki Stadium tomorrow, Le Saux admitted he was delighted that his injury woes were now behind him.

"It was just so frustrating having to watch when I was so keen to play in the big games in the Champions League," he said.

"From a personal point of view I felt even more helpless especially because things were going so poorly for us, even though it was my first real injury for a long time.

"When we won the title last season we all thought that playing in the Champions League would be a great opportunity for us to prove ourselves and show the real stature of the club but it just hasn't happened for us."

Saturday's victory over Frank Clark's side was proof that Ray Harford's men have at least partially banished the early season blues that haunted them.

And Le Saux agreed that an encouraging performance against Oleg Romantsev's runaway group leaders would be another major boost for morale.

He said: "Things don't happen overnight, and while we didn't just become a bad team, one big win doesn't alter everything either.

"But playing the way we did on Saturday can only give us a more positive attitude for the next few matches and if we can play well tomorrow and get a decent result it would do us a lot of good."

Blackburn's disappointment has perhaps been compounded by the fact that the draw appeared to give him a great chance of becoming the first English side to reach the knock-out stages of the competition, following the failures of Arsenal, Leeds and Manchester United. But Le Saux was adamant that such forecasts were based on a simple lack of knowledge.

He stressed: "It was just ignorance to think that we were up against bad teams. People said we had an easy draw, but none of them had seen Legia Warsaw or Spartak Moscow play and they have proved that they are good teams.

"Spartak, in particular, look like they're good enough to go a long way in this competition and yet we were unlucky to lose to them at home in the first match in September."

Blackburn's big problem has been up front rather than at the back, for while their four games had produced three defeats and a draw they have conceded a mere four goals but only scored once, through Mike Newell in the 2-1 defeat in Norway.

And Le Saux said that there could be no better place than Moscow for Alan Shearer to add to his 18-goal tally with his first European strike of the campaign.

Le Saux said: "Everybody is under their own pressures for various reasons, but Alan, more than most of us because he puts so much pressure and demands so much on himself.

"But he showed with his hat trick on Saturday that there's nothing wrong with his form. If Alan gets scoring opportunities he will take them and so we've got to provide them for him."

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