Rovers were in the bottom three when Allardyce succeeded Paul Ince at the helm last season but an improvement in results saw them eventually secure their Barclays Premier League status with a 15th-place finish.

The team made a shaky start to this campaign, but have generally managed to avoid being sucked into a relegation dog-fight and last night's 2-1 home victory over Birmingham moved Blackburn up to 11th in the table, 14 points clear of the drop zone with seven games to play.

Rovers - who have lost only three times in the league at Ewood Park under Allardyce - could yet steal a place in the top 10 this season and the manager was keen to praise the collective effort behind the team's steady rise.

"While we are mathematically not safe yet, I think that (the points tally) is enough for us to look up and think how well can we finish in the Premier League now," said Allardyce.

"It has been a massive effort from all the players and the staff behind the scenes to turn a team around as quickly as we have done since we came here just over a year ago.

"There has been a massive contribution from a lot of the younger players as well as the older ones, and we have had home form that is unbelievably good.

"The downside is that our away results have stopped us having a really, really good season, but the home form has been outstanding and of course everyone has played their part.

"Again we had a great crowd all around the ground (against Birmingham) singing away and cheering us on in what was a scrappy game."

David Dunn - who spent three-and-a-half years with Birmingham before rejoining Rovers in 2007 - netted a brace against his old club, opening the scoring by firing past Joe Hart after just five minutes.

James McFadden equalised early in the second half with a fine free-kick before Dunn struck again in the 67th minute, heading home El-Hadji Diouf's corner to seal the win.

Having climbed into the top 10 themselves this year predominantly through sturdy defending, Birmingham have now kept just one clean sheet in their last 11 league games.

Blues manager Alex McLeish admits it is something that needs to be addressed but felt the performance against Blackburn should give the players heart to finish strongly in what, overall, has been an impressive first season back in the top flight.

"We're disappointed, but we've got to get back on the shut-out road so that the team don't have to keep chasing games in the last seven," McLeish said.

"It is difficult to criticise them because they have been immense this season - a couple of guys coming from the Championship and developing, some guys that had been written off have had immense seasons, and a player playing at left-back who has come on leaps and bounds and made the position his own.

"So there is a lot of progress and we're not too downhearted because I'd be feeling much worse if we'd played badly.

"But it's similar to the start of the season where we lost some sucker goals and we got back in the groove.

"Even at that time, the performances gave the players great confidence and that is why they should be going into the next seven games - especially the Arsenal game at home (on Saturday) - with great confidence."