JAMES Hill says it is a “great honour” to join Blackburn Rovers as he targeted a spot in the end of season play-offs.

Hill has exited Cherries to join Championship Rovers on loan, after a successful temporary spell in Scotland with Heart of Midlothian in the second half of last season.

The 21-year-old did feature for Cherries on the opening day of the Premier League season, but his chances of game-time looked limited at Vitality Stadium.

Discussing his move to Blackburn with RoversTV, former Fleetwood Town centre-back Hill said: “It’s amazing and I’m so glad that it’s finally done, it’s over the line and I’m here. 

“It’s good to be back north. I spoke to the gaffer (Jon Dahl Tomasson) about his plans for the squad and where he wants to take the club, and it was all really exciting.

“It’s another level for me to step up and try to break into this team. It’s exciting about where this club is going.

“The history of this club is massive and that is another thing that draws you into a football club like this.

“Everyone across the country, they all know about Blackburn Rovers and it’s a great honour for me to come and join."

He added: “You can see from last season that anything is possible and you never know what could happen because football’s a crazy game that can be unpredictable at times.

“You don’t know how it’s going to pan out, you could get into the play-offs and you could get into the automatics.

“The play-offs are a massive opportunity for this club and an aim that we can definitely achieve.

“To be given the opportunity to play in the Championship is quite an honour because you get that respect playing in a physically demanding league where you'll be playing on a Saturday, a Tuesday, a Saturday and then another Tuesday.

“It’s about staying fit and it’s a very demanding league against a lot of Premier League teams really. These are the stages I want to take to get to a higher level.”