Appleton spots signs of encouragement

On a night when Brighton put seemingly endless pressure on an overworked Blackburn Rovers defence, it will be viewed as a relief that the away side came away with a point from a very tough encounter against an inform Albion.

And with Michael Appleton now looking towards the glamour FA Cup tie against Arsenal it seems last night's long spells without possession could be seen as ideal preparation for taking one of English football's big boys.

'It's an ideal warm-up. We'll have to concede a lot of territory against Arsenal but we want to be part of an attractive tie,' Appleton told BBC Lancashire.

'Our quality was not a good as when we played Ipswich last Saturday but, as the away side, we're bound to be a lot happier with the result than Brighton.

'Six or seven weeks ago we would have lost a game like that 4-1 or 5-1. There's more about us now.

'We had to deal with a lot of balls in the box and we showed a lot of steel.'

And the Rovers again reiterated the need to forget about the dreaded 'play-off' talk with still a decent number of games left to play.

Appleton added - 'It would be different if we had six games to play, but we have 15 matches to go with a lot to play this month.

'We are a work in progress at the minute. Our work ethic not to lose is good and important and we have enough quality to win away games.'


Wise words indeed.

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