HOPE Akpan has urged Blackburn Rovers to build on their battling EFL Cup 4-3 win over Crewe Alexandra and break their Championship duck tomorrow.

Rock-bottom Rovers welcome Fulham to Ewood Park looking to pick up their first league victory of the campaign going into the international break.

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And Akpan, who started the comeback against Crewe with his first goal of the season, reckons if they do that it could act as a springboard up the table.

The midfielder: “We made it hard for ourselves all night (against Crewe) but we were just glad to get the win at home and get into the next round.

“I was confident the whole (second) half we’d get ahead as we were playing good football and creating chances.

“And once we got that goal (through Craig Conway) I thought that it was it for 90 minutes.

“But similar to what we’ve been doing lately, we shot ourselves in the foot, but we did show character in extra-time to get over the line.

“But we don’t want conceding goals like that to become a recurring habit. It was a lack of concentration from ourselves.

“We’d worked hard to get the lead so to give it away cheaply was not what we needed. It did hurt and we had to dig deep to get the final goal to kill them off.

“Hopefully we can use that as a springboard to get that win before the international break on Saturday.

“We showed good fitness levels, I think the lads are starting to look a bit sharper, and hopefully we can rest up and then carry that into Saturday.

“It’s a big game for us and we want to win here at Ewood as soon as possible so the lads will be up for it.

“We do have goals in the team. Sam Gallagher has given us an extra dimension. We can stretch the game more in behind than we could in the first games.

“Craig Conway has hit form, a few of the wide boys are starting to find their rhythm, and hopefully we can get that win on Saturday and it’ll be a springboard for the rest of the season.”