THE MAN WHO WON IT

Won title with Blackburn in 1994-95

I REMEMBER we were eight points clear of Man United with six games to go — but they kept putting the pressure on.

We didn’t have great experience aside from Kenny Dalglish as manager. We were all in our early to mid-20s and I do think our form towards the end of the season — after we had been blowing teams away in the first half of it — dipped because maybe they wisened up to us.

It became about resilience and just finding a way to win and we did that.

We beat Everton, a really aggressive side who were in a relegation battle, and that was always going to be a tough game there. Then we went to QPR, I scored and we beat them, and we pretty much thought that would be it.

The next game was at Leeds and they equalised in the last minute. Then we were at home against Man City and they were in the relegation zone. But we got nervy.

They ended up beating us — and we had the best home form in the division that season. Nobody saw that coming.

With four games to go it was about sticking to our beliefs. We beat Crystal Palace next, Kevin Gallacher scoring, and it was comfortable enough. Then we lost to West Ham away, I lost Marc Rieper on a corner and he scored. Now it’s two games to go and really tight.

We weren’t the prettiest team but effective. We used the wide players, we could be direct and we played to our strengths with Alan Shearer and myself up top. We were a pragmatic, organised team and our mindset or tactics didn’t change. I don’t think we ever stopped believing we could win it.

When you lose a game it’s important to bounce back and we did that — twice. It was about staying ahead as we were being hunted down.

Kenny was the constant for us. He was the guy who had to hold his nerve and he never got too excited or too down. He was always pretty pragmatic and always giving us confidence. He backed us to the hilt.

We had a wobble and that’s when we needed him. It was about finding a way to win when not at your best, and we did that.

This season, Manchester City haven’t been at their best either. Liverpool have found a way to win when injury-ravaged and Arsenal have hit their stride after a slow start. It’s a sprint to the finish.