Emerton: Only Results Matter

Much like his national team manager during World Cup qualifying, Brett Emerton is more worried about the destination than the journey when it comes to Blackburn's Premier League survival chances.

"I don't care how we play at the moment as long as we get the results and I'm sure a lot of my teammates and fans will agree," said Emerton. 

"He [coach Sam Allardyce] does encourage us to play but he also likes us to play the percentages, in terms of playing long balls into the box, long throw-ins and set pieces. The more times you get the ball into the box, the more opportunities you are going to create."

Emerton recently returned to Blackburn after spending a couple of months Down Under for an operation and rehab to a cruciate ligament injury he sustained in January.

And the 30-year-old admitted that it's been hard watching his teammates struggle from the other side of the globe.

"It's been too nerve-wracking to watch Blackburn play while I've been in Australia," he said. "But I spoke to a few of the guys back home to find out what was happening and how the boys were doing.

"I'm in touch with [defender] Ryan Nelsen a lot - he's alright for a Kiwi! He's one of my very close friends and we're in touch a lot about what's going on while I've been away."

Emerton is confident Allardyce is the man to see Blackburn to safety.

He added: "Sam is obviously a great coach and when he came in the first thing he did was get us well organised, especially defensively as we were conceding a few goals.

"It was one of the things he worked on straight away and it paid dividends as we kept five clean sheets in his first six games in charge.

"He arrived at a difficult time for us and results have been fairly good under him and we've put in some good performances. We just need to turn some of these draws - which we've been getting a lot of - into wins to get us into a safe position."