Ewood Beat

ROBBIE KEANE is warning his Tottenham team-mates their revenge mission to Blackburn tomorrow could be wrecked by his Republic of Ireland World Cup pal Damien Duff.

The flame-haired Rovers winger is known as 'Duffer' to his friends - but Keane is sure underestimating the player's footballing brain is a very bad omen indeed.

"He's a massive, massive talent," said Keane, who has come through the international ranks with Duff - winning the European Youth Championship with Ireland and graduating together to last summer's World Cup finals.

Shortly before Keane joined Spurs in a £7million deal from Leeds last month, Duff was signing a lucrative new contract at Blackburn and the Tottenham new boy says: "They've done really well to keep him.

"A lot of big clubs were looking at him because he's a tremendous player. It will be nice to see him on Sunday but, hopefully, not too much."

Duff had a quiet game in last season's Worthington Cup final but still finished up with a winners' medal as Rovers beat Spurs 2-1 and grabbed a place in Europe.

But he scored in the Premiership win by the same margin over Spurs at Ewood Park last August and is now back in top gear after recovering from injury in Ireland's opening Euro 2004 qualifier against Russia last month.

He won a penalty and scored a goal to spark Blackburn's 2-0 win at West Brom on Monday and weighed in with what proved to be the decisive away goal in the tough UEFA Cup return against CSKA in Sofia three days later.

Keane said: He showed just what Blackburn were missing while he was injured and, if anybody needed reminding, that he's got that touch of real class.

"It seems odd really, but the pair of us are probably among the most established players in the Ireland team now even though Damien's still only 23 and I'm only a year younger.

"A lot of the lads in the Irish squad now have only about 10 caps while Damien and I have between 30 and 40.

"Hopefully, I'll get a lot more and I'm certain Damien will. He's got that special touch where he can beat a defender with a trick and buzz down the line but he can score goals as well when he gets through the middle."

Keane is bursting to end his own mini goal-drought at Spurs where he has yet to score in four games since leaving Elland Road.

He squandered a hat-trick of golden chances in the 1-0 Worthington Cup win over Cardiff in midweek and admitted: "I know I should have had a few goals on the night.

"But it hasn't affected my confidence and little dry spells like this never will. I'm confident enough, very confident, to be honest with you - I know on another day all the chances like the ones I missed against Cardiff will go in."

Spurs boss Glenn Hoddle reckons Keane may be trying too hard and said: "He just needs that breakthrough to calm him down.

"Once the first one goes in he'll be back to his usual self and many more will follow. I have no doubt at all about that."

Draw could provide trip home for Souness

WITH one successful trip to Eastern Europe behind them, Blackburn Rovers will find out what awaits them in the next round of the UEFA Cup when the draw is made on Tuesday.

And arguably the most thrilling prospect could be that they will be drawn against Scottish giants Celtic, ensuring a return to Glasgow for manager Graeme Souness.

As ever with a cup draw run by UEFA there are almost as many ifs and buts involved as there are actual teams and Rovers chief executive John Williams admitted: "We think we have worked out what the situation is.

"This is not gospel but we do believe that we will not be one of the 24 seeded teams because of our poor record in Europe but that is not something that worries us. In fact it might even suit us. We were seeded for the last round but now we will be drawn against one of the top 24 although we do know that we cannot play another English team at this stage.

"The pots that existed when the first draw was made have been done away with and so it will be just a straight draw.

"I think that Lazio are the number one seeds and Celtic are also seeded."

Williams also believes that first division strugglers Ipswich will be seeded because they did well in Europe last season.

But he is fairly sure that the one place they will not be going is Sofia, despite the fact that Levski Sofia reached the second round with a comfortable two legged defeat of Danish side Brondby. "Like us they are not among the seeds so we will not be going back there at this stage," said Williams.

This is the final knockout stage before the 24 remaining teams are joined in the last 32 by the eight sides to have finished third in their groups in the Champions League.

While he accepts that he is a notoriously bad watcher of games he did not think for one minute that the Bulgarian side would score the fourth goal of the game that would have completed one of the most remarkable comebacks in the UEFA Cup's colourful history.

"Mind you I did not expect them to score a first, a second or a third," he joked. "But I honestly did not see them getting a fourth. I thought we did brilliantly and for 70 minutes we played really, really well. I've got to admit I loved the atmosphere although it did get a bit naughty on a couple of occasions, especially the racist abuse. There should never be that at any football game.

"But for most of the time it was tremendous, the fans made a great noise and got behind their team.

"I think it was a fantastic experience for the young players and I am sure they will benefit from it in the future.

"Just look at our back four. We had three players aged around 22 and I don't think there is another team in the Premier League that can say that. That suggests to me that the future is very bright because they will all just keep getting better."

There is no doubt that wherever the draw sends Rovers young stars they will relish the experience. The message is: "Bring them on!"

It's all in the name!

THERE was an air of inevitability about the red card shown in Sofia on Thursday night.

After all, with a team featuring Ivanov, Antonov, Gargorov, Petrov and the man who saw red Dimitrov it seemed logical that one of them should be sentov!

Mr Unpopular!

TWO of the Blackburn Rovers squad have made it into the top 10 of the most popular footballers in one national newspaper's fantasy football league.

And to judge by the fact that Andy Cole (seventh) and Damien Duff (ninth) have made it while Brad Friedel, one of the best keepers in the world hasn't, it would appear that the country's football fans are expecting Rovers to score plenty of goals but possibly concede a few as well.