PAUL Lambert has called on the Ewood Park faithful to roar Blackburn Rovers to victory in his first home game in charge of the club.

New Rovers boss Lambert fully believes the 5,500-strong blue and white army had a major part to play in last Saturday’s success at Preston North End.

And he believes his side are going to need that level of support again this afternoon if they are to make it back-to-back victories for the first time this season.

Rovers chiefs are anticipating a crowd in excess of the club’s 14,096 average for the visit of an in-form Sheffield Wednesday team who will be backed by more than 3,000 fans.

And Lambert said: “The away fans turn up and because they’re outnumbered they tend to make themselves heard.

“They were excellent for us at Preston and as I said afterwards, they’ve had a lot of knocks over the years so the win was great for them.

“But at home we’re going to need them again. We’re going to have more at home and if they can continue to back us the way they did that would be great.

“As I’ve said before, the two key components are the players and the fans. They have to have that relationship with each other.

“If they do there will be hard times when the crowd will drag you over the line – they will get you over the line.

“They’ll be vital for us.”

Lambert, alongside assistant manager Alan Irvine and first-team coach Rob Kelly, have now had two full weeks working with the players.

But he insists it is going to take longer than that for them to take on board the way he wants them to play.

“We’ve only been here for less than a fortnight so you’ve got to watch you don’t give them too much information so that it becomes clouded,” said Lambert.

“So we’re just going to get the basics right first and foremost – and to be fair they’ve taken it on board.

“I can’t guarantee it’s going to work every week but what I can guarantee is that we’ll be on the front foot and we’ll try if we can to entertain.

“If we apply ourselves like we did last week then we’ve got a chance.”

All of the players, both publicly and privately, have spoken of the increase in intensity of training since Lambert took over the Rovers reins from Gary Bowyer.

But Lambert said: “It’s only the way I like to train. I like to train the way we play, and the intensity level is probably higher, and that’s not a slight on Gary at all that the lads are saying the intensity of the new manager’s training is higher.

“That’s their opinion. My opinion is they have to train like that, and if you do that, you’ll transfer that from the training ground on to the pitch.

“That’s what we’re trying to get them up to speed with. It won’t always guarantee success but it’ll get them ready for games and hopefully put us on the front foot.”