Rovers boss Gary Bowyer spoke to his club's official website ahead of his side's Capital One Cup round one tie at Brunton Park against Carlisle this evening, Bowyer suggesting a slightly changed Blackburn line-up for the game:
“It is another game of football, I was brought up with the belief that when you enter you have got to try to win. That said, the league will always be our priority, especially with what is on offer this season to get into the Premier League. But, it does provide us with an opportunity to allow some players to rest from one or two knocks they have picked up over the weekend, and it provides the players to come in with the opportunity to put pressure on the players.
“That opportunity is there now for them to stake a claim on Saturday, that is for sure, like I say, we have got one or two who have got knocks and if it was a league game one or two of them wouldn’t play tomorrow because of the knocks. But, we know that they will be very, very close to being fit on Saturday, and if not the people that perform properly tomorrow have a got chance of getting the shirt on Saturday.
“The performance on Sunday was a great start for us, and that is all it is, it was a good start and the players that are coming in now have got to maintain the pressure on them so that we can hit those standards again on Saturday. I think the people who we have brought in like Tommy Spurr, who I don’t think a lot of people knew a great deal about until they saw the level of performance he delivered, which has come from winning promotion.
“The same with Corry Evans that we have brought in, and Tom Cairney. They are the types that have experienced winning and we hope that rubs off, the average age of our starting eleven was 22 on Sunday so we need those types of people in and around our dressing room.
“You only have to look at all the shocks so far to not take tonight lightly, this club has been through the headlines for the wrong reasons too many over the last 12 months, so it something that we need to try to avoid, that is for sure. We can’t read too much into Carlisle’s result over the weekend because they had a player sent off. We have got to make sure that we are right on it from minute one, like we were on Sunday and perform to the levels that I know that the squad can.
“We have a good squad, we have got a big squad, we are aware of that and this provides an opportunity for some of them. I think Carlisle’s result will be a hindrance to us, I think the circumstances, they had a player sent off and it was at home and it was their first home game of the season, and they will be desperate to put on a show for their supporters because of obviously what happened at the weekend. But, we have just got to make sure that we concentrate on ourselves and go and do a professional job, but I haven’t been picking Eric Kinder’s brain because he hasn’t got one.”
So, it looks like Rovers will be resting a few players this evening, with striker Ruben Rochina also definitely missing out after dislocating his shoulder in Sunday’s 1-1 Championship draw at Derby County. Blackburn have though strengthened an already large squad recently after signing 21-year old Cameroonian central defender Yann Songo’o on Monday following a successful trial spell.
The referee for this evening's match is Richard Clark from Morpeth and he will be assisted down the lines by Shaun Hudson from Sunderland and Geoffrey Liddle from Darlington. Meanwhile the fourth official is Matthew Dicicco from Middlesbrough. The officials perhaps also responsible for overseeing 30 minutes of extra-time if the scores are level after 90 minutes, and then a penalty shoot-out if the two sides still can't be separated after 120 minutes of action.
Meanwhile, should Carlisle progress to the second round, the draw for that stage of the competition will take place on Thursday lunchtime at 12.30pm live on SKY Sports News. The draw featuring the 35 round one winners plus Aston Villa, Cardiff City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Hull City, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Reading, Southampton, Stoke City, Sunderland, West Bromwich Albion and West Ham United.