WHAT were the two little words on the lips of both Blackburn Rovers players and supporters going into Saturday’s trip to Fulham?

They would be ‘clean sheet’.

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Rovers had failed to keep one in their previous 11 matches in all competitions and, after conceding three goals in a game for the third time this season in going down 3-2 to Derby County, if ever there a time to put a halt to that run then it came at Craven Cottage.

That Gary Bowyer’s side achieved their double objective – blunt a Fulham attack containing the considerable talents of Ross McCormack, Hugo Rodallega and Bryan Ruiz and return home with the three points in the bag – deserves praise.

Rovers had worked in training in the two days after their deserved but partly self-inflicted defeat to Derby in an effort to make them harder to break down.

Rovers had worked in training in the two days after their partly self-inflicted defeat to Derby in an effort to make them harder to break down.

But the challenge they face now is shutting out the opposition over and over again as history suggests you need to be doing just that at least 16 times a season if you are going to win promotion.

Of the 30 clubs who have gone up to the Premier League over the last 10 years from the Championship, the teams who finished in the top two and the team who won the play-off final have averaged 16.7 clean sheets per season.

Yes there have been notable exceptions, such as Crystal Palace (11) in 2012-13, Norwich City (11) in 2010-11 and Stoke City in 2007-08 (11), whose amount of shut outs were well below the average.

But as Leicester City (18), Burnley (19) and QPR (17) showed last season, the sides near the top of the clean-sheet standings are invariably the ones who claim a place in the top flight.

The good news is that Rovers, under Bowyer, have proved they can keep the back door shut.

Their return of 15 clean sheets in 2013-14 was bettered only by six teams, the aforementioned trio of Leicester, Burnley and QPR, as well as Brighton & Hove Albion (20), Middlesbrough (17) and Wigan Athletic (16).

That was summed up by goalkeeper Jason Steele after the 1-0 victory at Fulham.

“Every clean sheet is important whether it’s on the training pitch in a seven-a-side game or on a Saturday in front of the fans,” said Steele, who impressed on his Rovers debut after replacing the injured Paul Robinson between the posts.

“It’s what I have to do and it’s what I get paid to do. Sometimes goals go in and sometimes you can do something about them and sometimes you can’t.

“But when you do keep a clean sheet it gives you a great deal of satisfaction and pride.”

Those feelings were shared by fellow full debutant, centre back Shane Duffy.

“It comes from everyone, from the front to the back, and we just thought as a team we were letting them in too easy,” said Duffy.

“We worked on it in training and it worked. Now we have to keep building on it and be hard to beat, especially at home.

“A few more clean sheets at home would be nice.”