Ex-Blackburn Rovers striker highlights two examples after promotion claim

Former Blackburn Rovers striker Dwight Yorke insists the club must believe they can win promotion this season.

Tony Mowbray's side are aiming for a much better campaign having spent last year scrapping to stay in the division. The new head coach has spoken about his ambitions to compete for a top-eight berth, which now offers the chance of promotion.

Yorke, who spent two years at Ewood Park between 2002 and 2004, believes Coventry City and Hull City are examples of why Rovers can believe.

“Speaking to sports betting website BOYLE Sports, Yorke said: "I look back to my experience as a player in the Championship to realise how that league operates, and everybody has a genuine chance from top to bottom, whether it’s the teams that are favourites with the bigger budgets or the teams that surprise you.

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"We know West Ham, Wolves and Burnley are dropping back down with their parachute payments and Premier League players, and so they dominate the conversations, and it does have a little bit of a knock-on effect.

"But I think everybody should take a leap out of Coventry City’s book. They defied the odds last year under Frank Lampard and anybody in this league with a decent squad and a good manager can get themselves promoted. It doesn't matter what the predictions say about them before the season kicks off.

"If you’re brave enough to go out and play the way you need to play and fight for it, you can get up there. That’s my experience of the Championship. When I joined Sunderland, we were in 23rd place. By April, we’d won the league. That tells you everything.

"It doesn't matter who you are, or who you play for, if you put your mind and soul into it, the Championship will reward you. You can get it done. It’s a league that is as wide open as ever.

"Anyone can get promoted, so why can’t Wrexham or Birmingham City or Blackburn Rovers go out there do it this season? Who thought Hull City would go up to the Premier League last year? There’s another example to look at.

"Wrexham have never made it to the Premier League but Birmingham and Blackburn have played in the top flight before so why would you not go into the season thinking you can get back up there?

"With the extra two playoff places, these teams have never had more ways to get promoted than they do now."