Rovers head off to Dubai

The Rovers first team have jetted off in style to Dubai on a break to take advantage of a break in the schedule.

Rovers are already out of the FA Cup and Sam Allardyce has used it to give his players a rest after a heavy run of games in the last month and a half.

Dubai is a definite improvement on last year's trip to Scotland - something that has not gone unnoticed by Martin Olsson among others.

They have not been out there long but the highlights of the trip so far are as follows -

* El Hadji Diouf was tripped by a rock on the beach, he was seen rolling around clutching his ankle for five minutes. He then returned to his feet sharply after the rock was reprimanded and showed no lasting ill effects.

* Chris Samba accidently tugged the shirt of an elderly gentleman in the high street - after being admonished Sam explained to the pensioner that tall people are more susceptable to these sort of things.

* The players held a 'stone skimming' contest which involved players lobbing stones into the sea and counting the amount of bounces the stone would take. Manager Sam Allardyce and Ryan Nelsen had trouble with the game and were seen lobbing the stones too high and long and the ocassional one hit Niko Kalinic on the head.

*The players also went for a light jog on the first morning. Vince Grella, Dave Dunn and Steven Reid all had to pull out after contracting sunburn.

* Morten Gamst Pedersen has been a none event so far due to him actually trying to get a real tan as opposed to his usual umpa lumpa look.

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