TOP scorer Rudy Gestede admits Blackburn Rovers must start backing up their words with actions.

Gestede and his team-mates fully believe Rovers can improve on last season’s eighth place finish and make the play-offs.

MORE TOP STORIES:

But a run of four games without a win has left them floundering in 13th place ahead of tonight’s clash with a Birmingham City side who yesterday sacked their boss Lee Clark.

Rovers will go into the Ewood Park encounter in buoyant mood after they recovered from the sending off of Matt Kilgallon to earn a last-gasp 1-1 draw at in-form Ipswich Town on Saturday.

But Gestede accepts they simply have to follow that up with a victory over the managerless Blues.

“We’ve know we’ve got spirit and that’s something very good as, with this, you can do anything you want,” said the Benin international.

“If you add the quality we’ve got, we’ve got everything to be in the top six.

“But now it’s enough to speak and say we’ve got everything, we need to show it on the pitch and prove we’re right.”

Gestede has scored five goals in 11 games this season and 17 in 32 appearances since making a making a permanent £200,000 move from Cardiff City in January.

But the 26-year-old is not happy with his form.

He believes he is still playing catch-up with the rest of Gary Bowyer’s squad after a stop start summer.

Gestede missed Rovers’ training camp in Portugal in order to play for his country in an African Cup of Nations qualifier and then sat out their final three pre-season friendlies through illness.

“Five goals is all right but I’m not very happy,” said the towering targetman, who returned to Rovers boss Bowyer’s starting line-up against Ipswich after recovering from a hamstring injury.

“At the start of the season I wasn’t in the best shape as I’d been away with the national team and when I came back I wasn’t very fit.

“Because of that when I started to play three games in a week, maybe I was more tired than the other players.

“But now I’m managing it with the medical staff – we’ve got quality in the staff – so I feel fit now.

“I think I can bring more on the pitch.”

Gestede netted his first and so far only hat-trick of his career in Rovers’ last meeting with Birmingham, a 4-2 victory at St Andrews in April.

And he said: “Birmingham is a team we can beat but it won’t be an easy game because there’s never an easy game in this league.

“We’ll take it seriously, be focused on what we’re going to do and enjoy it.”