HAKAN Sukur stepped up his comeback plans last night by scoring for the first time since he secured a move to England.

The Turkish World Cup star capped his first start since recovering from a broken leg with a goal in the Kanu Heart Foundation charity match at Bolton's Reebok Stadium.

And news of the 31-year-old striker's performance is sure to come as a timely boost to Rovers boss Graeme Souness as he sets his sights on next week's clash with Arsenal at Ewood.

Sukur, one of three Rovers players to appear in last night's fundraiser, grabbed a goal during a 45-minute appearance for a Rest of the World XI against an African Select XI.

But there was a moment of concern for the former Inter Milan star when he got poleaxed by a heavy challenge from the African keeper.

After treatment, he did return to his feet and completed the remainder of the half.

But he is likely to be checked over by Rovers' own medical staff today as a precautionary measure considering he only recently returned from a broken leg and a double hernia operation.

Meanwhile, Martin Taylor insists he has 'no complaints' about his recent omission from Rovers' starting line-up.

Taylor, who also played in last night's game, did return to the side at the weekend after Craig Short was forced to drop out with a thigh injury.

But in the two games prior to that, he was forced to watch from the bench after Souness took the decision to reunite Short with Henning Berg.

And, although Taylor was desperately disappointed to lose his place, he's determined to learn from the experience.

"I can't really have any complaints because the two games I was out Henning and Shorty were fantastic," said Taylor.

"When I was out of the team, I watched Henning and Shorty very closely to see how they defend because if I'm going to become a better player and eradicate the mistakes from my game then I need to watch the more experienced players and see how they do it.

"They've defended well and they should have had two clean sheets against Southampton and Chelsea because the goal we conceded at Stamford Bridge should never have counted.

"But it was just nice to come back in on Saturday and prove that I can do it as well.

"Obviously, I was very disappointed to lose my place because I'd played so many games and when you're playing games you don't want to be left out of the team.

"So I was sitting on the bench just itching to get on and show my worth but all you can do is keep it going in training and then when you get your chance be ready for it.

"I felt I was ready on Saturday and I was pleased with my performance."

Despite being dropped, Taylor is still pleased with the way his season as gone as a whole. And he admits he's already played more games than he was expecting to at the start of the campaign.

"At the start of the season you look to play in as many games as you can and, apart from when I had a small injury, I've played in nearly all of them," said the Rovers defender.

"At the end of the day, you need the experience of playing in the Premier League against top players and I think I'm on the way to doing that.

"Obviously, I'm still learning but I've got good players around me to learn from and that's exactly what I intend to do."

And Taylor believes Rovers are now in a position to mount a late charge for Europe following Saturday's 1-0 win over Manchester City.

"Everyone should be on the up now after taking nine points out of a possible nine," he added.

"We're looking up at teams now rather than the ones behind us.

"In the next few weeks we've got to play several teams who are above us in the table and we seem to play better against them so hopefully we can keep winning. That's our objective, anyway, and that sixth spot would be nice.

"We got a taste of Europe this season and I'd love to go to places like Celtic again."