GOALKEEPER Paul Robinson believes tonight’s FA Cup third-round replay at Manchester City gives Blackburn Rovers the perfect stage to show the nation what a good team they are becoming.

Robinson concedes Rovers will be ‘massive underdogs’ for the televised tie with a free-scoring City side who are on a 10-match winning run at the Etihad Stadium stretching back to mid-October.

But the fit-again former England number one is viewing the match as an opportunity to display the progress the club has made under manager Gary Bowyer.

“You see the way they’re playing at home and the amount of goals they’ve scored so we’ll be going into the game as massive, massive underdogs,” said Robinson, who made his return in the initial 1-1 draw with City at Ewood Park after 13 months on the sidelines.

“But as we showed last time we’ve got absolutely nothing to lose.

“Nobody is giving us a chance so we’ve got to go there and show people what we can do. It’s going to be tough but we’ve got a stage where we can show our talents and show what a good team we are.”

Robinson retained his place in the Rovers goal for Saturday’s 1-0 Championship win over Doncaster and believes it was a vital three points as Bowyer’s side continued to push towards the play-off places.

He said: “The manager said it was the most important game of the season, coming off the back of the Leeds win and the game against Manchester City.

“If you look at the table at the end of the season and you miss out on the play-offs by one or two points or on goal difference, it is days like Saturday when you potentially draw games instead of winning games that could change your fortunes.”

The 34-year-old added: “Now we can go to Manchester City and enjoy ourselves and express ourselves.”