WITH Blackburn Rovers eager to get their stuttering play-off bid back on track and Wigan Athletic desperate for points in their quest for survival this afternoon’s derby clash has the makings of a match neither can afford to lose.

Rovers make the short trip to the DW Stadium on the back of a run of four defeats in their last six league outings that has left them six points behind the play-offs.

But Wigan are in even worse form with their last win in front of their own supporters coming nine games ago.

David Thompson, who played for both clubs during a career that was cut short by injury in 2007, admits it is a ‘massive match’.

“Both sides will be going into it thinking ‘this is our chance to get back on track’,” said Thompson, who scored 10 goals in 84 appearances for Rovers after making a £1.5m move from Coventry City in 2002.

“The winner will be whoever is the hungrier.

“But if Blackburn are on their game they should have too much for them.

“Whenever I saw Blackburn last season I thought they showed a little bit of naivety.

“They looked a young team with a lot of talent but tactically they couldn’t close games out.

“This season I thought they’ve shown signs of improving on that but it does look over these last five or six games they’ve regressed a little bit.

“But I think they’ve got a good manager in Gary Bowyer. I think tactically he could be a little bit better at times, as I’m sure he’d admit, but he will get better and the club is in good hands now.”

Thompson, now 37, started out at boyhood heroes Liverpool before signing for Coventry.

The former midfielder spent two seasons with the Sky Blues before arriving at Ewood Park.

Thompson, a fan of current Rovers midfielders Tom Cairney and Craig Conway, thrived in the blue-and-white-halved shirt and won a call-up into the England squad.

But his attempts to reach his potential were dashed by a serious knee injury.

“I really enjoyed it at Blackburn,” said Thompson, who spent a successful six months at Wigan after leaving Rovers in January 2006.

“I had a manager there, in Graeme Souness, who I thought was a fantastic man-manager. I was getting close to reaching my potential but I knew I had some way to go, and I knew that the England call at the time was just the beginning.

“But then the injury came and I couldn’t achieve what I wanted to, not personally or for Mark Hughes. I loved the professionalism of Mark Hughes and Eddie Niedzwiecki.”

Now Thompson is hoping to follow in the footsteps of his former Rovers bosses.

He spent two years out with his family after retiring, launching business ventures and recovering from the blow of seeing his career end early.

But, after achieving his UEFA A and B badges, he has now enrolled on the UEFA Pro Licence course ahead of taking his first steps into management.

That could have come over Christmas when a consortium attempting to buy struggling Scottish Premiership club St Mirren wanted to install him as the club’s new boss.

“I met the consortium that was going to buy the club, they were happy with me and were excited with what I could bring to the table,” said Thompson, a regular at Liverpool and Stoke City’s training grounds.

“But unfortunately the deal dragged on, they lost four games at the beginning of January which made the task of keeping them up even harder.

“That put paid to that one but I am applying for more opportunities as it is something I want to do.”