Owen aiming for title tilt

The 23-year-old England international, who added a brace in Saturday's Ewood park clash to take his burgeoning Premiership tally to five in as many games, feels that the many critics who wrote off Gerard Houllier's men earlier in the campaign may live to regret their words.

Owen said: "To be able to say we have won our last two games is really good. At the start of the season there were probably five teams who were going to have a chance of winning the title, with Man United and Arsenal the two favourites of the five. After our start I think a lot of people were writing us off, but with these two wins we are suddenly back in a good position again.

"We've a home game next week and if we can win that then we'll be right back among it towards the top of the table. We're feeling good at the moment, we're playing well, creating chances and scoring goals. We deserved to win yesterday."