Sam on Villa game and Warnock

Rovers manager Sam Allardyce is urging fans to give Stephen Warnock a warm reception when he struts his stuff for his new club Aston Villa tomorrow afternoon.

Allardyce has put his hands up and confessed he didn't the one cap England international to go but got what he considered to be fair value for the left back in an £7 million deal.

When quizzed about the welcome that Warnock will receive, Sam, speaking to Sky Sports said - 'I hope so, he has been a great servant to Blackburn.

'He got the move he wanted and we got the money that matched what we felt his value was. We were satisfied with that, even though we were disappointed to lose our player of the year.

'When you see Manchester United selling (Cristiano) Ronaldo then you see it's a business. When somebody is giving you the sort of money that we got for Stephen, then you can't say no.

'I didn't want it to happen but in the end it did. I think that, as always as a manager, you learn to live with the difficulties that the transfer window brings your way.

'The best thing we did was we got the right price, then we moved on and after that we got a really good replacement in Pascal Chimbonda, so we won't miss Stephen Warnock perhaps quite as much as we expected.

'It's a fantastic move for Stephen, the right time in his career, so I've got no problems with that. We just hope he plays not so good on Saturday, we beat them and then after that he can go on to win as many things as he possibly can!'

Rovers who badly need the points after four points in five games will have a tough time tomorrow against an in form Villa, who are notoriously good away from home.

Allardyce said - 'We need to play the right way against a very tough Aston Villa side who have won all three of their away games on the trot,'

'Tactically we have to be ready for them and as individuals we will have to play to our best tomorrow.

'If we don't do that then Aston Villa can pick you off and make life very difficult for you - as we found last season when they came here.

'We have to nullify a very potent, pacy, quick Villa frontline. If you leave them too many spaces as we did last season, they end up picking you off, and while you might be the best team in possession or have territorial advantage, against Aston Villa it doesn't mean anything.

'You must concentrate on the fact that when you lose the ball these guys with so much pace can go from one end of the pitch to the other in a flash and stick the ball in the back on the net. We have to make sure our defenders are concentrating fully, even when we are attacking.'

Allardyce closed by evaluating the sorry performance from Everton away last weekend by making this interesting statement - 'There's only El-Hadji Diouf, Chris Samba and Paul Robinson for me that played to their potential on Sunday, which is pretty poor, three out of 11.

'The rest were pretty below par for them - lots of effort but lots of misguided effort unfortunately. So nobody can complain if they get left out.'

OUCH.

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