PER Frandsen looked back on a year in which his career has come full circle and insisted today: "I don't have anything special to prove to anyone at Blackburn."

With uncanny timing - it's precisely a year to the day since he reluctantly agreed to a £1.75 million transfer from Wanderers to Rovers - the Denmark midfielder is back in form, bubbling with enthusiasm and brimming with confidence as he prepares for a happy return to Ewood Park.

After a steady but unspectacular start to the season following his £1.6 million transfer back to the Reebok, he has moved up a gear and is now in the mood to play a central role in tomorrow's derby duel.

But, despite what many consider to have been an unhappy period in his life, Frandsen maintains that it's local pride, not score-settling that he has in mind.

Philosophical about what turned out to be an ill-fated move, he acknowledges: "Of course it is special when you play your old team but I was only there eight months or so.

"I don't feel that I've got any extra points to prove to anyone. When I played for them I did okay and had some good spells. But I had three managers in eight months and the last one (Graeme Souness) wasn't really interested in me.

"But that's the way it goes in football. I still have friends over there. I speak to a few of them and still wish them the best - knowing Blakey as well as I do, it's good to see him scoring goals again.

"The important thing for us is that this is a local derby game and it's one we want to win."

Frandsen is perfectly positioned to gauge the relative merits of the rival squads and he accepts that Rovers have greater quality in depth. But he reckons that is no guarantee of success.

"I always felt last year that if you played one bad game, you were straight out," he explains. "It's not always a good thing to have so many players.

"In all the years I've been here (at Bolton) you could have had two or three games in a row when you don't perform to your best or you weren't fit. But you still had time to get back your fitness or your form.

"You don't get that time with a big squad and maybe that strength can work against you."