JASON Lowe has stressed that Blackburn Rovers must remain in the Premier League for the good of the town – and he is confident they can build on Saturday’s win over QPR in his absence.

Lowe picked up his 10th booking of the season in Rovers’ 3-2 victory at the weekend, meaning he will now be suspended for their trip to Manchester City on February 25 and the home game against Aston Villa a week later.

But the young midfielder took encouragement from the QPR win, which ultimately proved enough to lift Rovers out of the relegation zone going into their two-week break, and believes the side can continue to climb the table without him.

Lowe joined Rovers’ academy at the age of 12 and is well aware just how important a Premier League football club is to Blackburn as a whole.

“Blackburn Rovers is the main thing that happens in the town and we’ll do everything we can to make sure we stay in this league,” the 20-year-old said.

“I’m confident we can do that, we just have to keep producing performances and take our chances, and try to get the clean sheets on the board. That’s what’s going to get us out of there.

“But Saturday was a step forward and hopefully we’ll keep going in that direction.

“There’s been a lot of times this season where we’ve performed fantastically well and not got anything from it.

“But I think moving on we just need to keep on with the performances and results will come.

“Arsenal was a disappointing performance, the scoreline spoke for itself, and we needed to bounce back from that.

“I thought we did.”

Lowe, though, admits he is disappointed to have picked up a two-match ban after being booked for fouling Adel Taarabt on Saturday.

“I was aware I was on nine yellows before the game and I’m absolutely gutted about the ban,” he said.

“But at the time when Taarabt’s going through I’m thinking, ‘Do I let him run at the back four or do I take the booking?’.

“I chose to take the booking, it happens in football.

“There have been a few petty yellow cards in there, I’ll hold my hand up, sometimes it’s been a petty one where I’ve not booted the ball away but I might have poked it 10 yards away.

“But I think most of them are for kicking somebody, so I’ll take that.

“I’ve always been a bit of a tackler, it’s nothing new there, but I need to learn to maybe time them a bit better.”