Young Blackburn Strikers Earn Praise

Blackburn Rovers strikers Matt Derbyshire and Paul Gallagher have earned praise from Mark Hughes following their goalscoring displays in the 4-1 FA Cup victory over Everton.

Being paired together for the second time this season Derbyshire and Gallagher had a fair greater impact on arguably a superior opponent than they did in their first outing together against Nancy in a UEFA Cup tie in December.

After both getting on the scoresheet; Derbyshire (20) with a poachers follow up and Gallagher (22) with a fine individual strike each took their tally to two goals for the campaign, Derbyshire scoring for the second successive match. This earned the pair praise from Hughes:

"It is great for their development as young football players, they've been able to come in and have an impact and that is what you have to do when you are a young player.

"If you score goals when you are striker then you thrive on them.

"I thought they did very well, it was a decent combination, I knew that Matty likes the balls down the channels, he uses his energy and enthusiasm to unsettle back fours.

"Gally we know is probably one of the most technical players that we have, at times he needs to be more forceful in his game, but when his touch is good and true then he can affect the game in a positive way and that is exactly what he did."

Some, myself included expressed doubts over Gally recently but I think he showed more than enough yesterday and Sparky has said enough to disperse any doubts that we may have had that he could be shipped out in January.

It wasn't all good news however as both picked up injuries and could be doubts for the weekend, Gally almost certainly as he may well be out for up to two-weeks with a groin strain while Derbyshire picked up a dead leg, but should be fit for the weekend visit to Ewood Park of Arsenal.

Meanwhile reports in today's press are speculating on what we all pretty much suspected anyway, Andy Todd is on his way out of Ewood.

But again as most of us have predicted or even suggested reports are saying he will leave Rovers but not until the summer. Personally this doesn't surprise me at all. For most of the season I had thought he would leave this month but since coming back in he has done more than enough to convince me he is certainly worth keeping, at least until the summer…

If we can get a £2 million fee as is being quoted I think we'd happily settle for that!

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