Dunn to a finish

Rovers 2: Blake 41, Jansen 44

Palace 0: DAVID Dunn won't officially come of age until he turns 21 in December.

But the England Under 21 international looks ready to reach maturity in a footballing sense after the kind of all-action performance which conjured up images of a certain Graeme Souness.

Dunn was simply irresistible as Rovers got their promotion bandwagon up and running in some style against a flagging Palace.

Bristling with energy and enthusiasm, he was the inspirational force behind an exhilarating display which did much to exorcise some of the ghosts of last season.

Souness, understandably, was thrilled with the Great Harwood born youngster after the game.

And he believes both Dunn and Matt Jansen could be the aces in his pack over the next 10 months.

"We have two young boys in Jansen and Dunn who have talent to burn," purred Souness.

"But what they've got to learn is that the game is not all about showing how clever you are as an individual.

"It's about being part of a team.

"And if they continue to learn that then they could have big futures.

"I thought David Dunn was excellent in that respect, particularly in the first half.

"So I guess you could say the boy done good."

Clearly revelling in his new role alongside Garry Flitcroft, Dunn was the architect behind both Rovers goals thanks to two flashes of magic during a scintillating four minute spell just before half time.

But there was much to admire in an overall team performance which ranked as good as anything I've seen from Rovers during the last 12 months.

There's no doubt this squad has talent -- they proved that at places like Anfield last season.

But what has been missing in the past is the strength of character to grind out results when the going gets tough. However, that's a quality which Souness appears to have injected in abundance.

As Palace's bully-boy tactics threatened to knock Rovers out of their stride, they suddenly found the resolve to stand up and be counted.

Once Flitcroft and Dunn won the physical battle, it had a galvanising effect on the rest of the team.

That then provided the platform for the likes of Jansen to strut his stuff and Souness's ploy to use him and Damien Duff alongside Nathan Blake in a three-pronged attack gave Rovers plenty of options going forward.

With Stig Inge Bjornebye and John Curtis always willing to get forward down the flanks, there was a vibrancy to some of their approach play.

And the Palace defence creaked under the pressure at times.

Of course it's far too early to get carried away.

Everyone seems to have been stuffing Palace recently and Alan Smith has clearly got his work cut out.

But the signs were there for all to see that Rovers mean business this season.

And if they can build on this excellent start then who knows where that could take them.

Lack of confidence was a big problem last season as players struggled to adapt to life in the First Division.

But there was a swagger about the men wearing blue and white halves on Saturday.

And that's the kind of commodity you need in abundance if you are going to make the transformation from nearly men into genuine promotion candidates.

Rovers demonstrated their new-found confidence in the opening 10 minutes when Damien Duff swopped passes with Blake before pulling the trigger from the edge of the box but his shot took a big deflection off Neil Ruddock and came back off the post.

Then Palace should have been reduced to 10 men when Craig Harrison launched himself into a vicious two-footed lunge at John Curtis but amazingly escaped with only caution.

That seemed to rattle Rovers and they visibly upped the tempo from then on. Jansen fired narrowly over before they finally broke the deadlock on 40 minutes.

Dunn robbed Dean Austin on the edge of the box and, after a cheeky nutmeg, he teased two defenders before rolling the ball to Blake who smashed it in off the bar.

If that was down to pure persistence, then Rovers' second four minutes later was pure genius.

Dunn raced away from his marker after a neat turn and slipped a beautifully weighed pass through to Jansen who rounded Taylor and stroked the ball into the empty net.

Rovers eased off the gas in the second half but they still looked the more threatening.

Duff again hit a post after smart work from Jason McAteer and Jansen had what looked to be a perfectly legitimate goal ruled out for offside.

Palace's only real chance of the half fell to Forssell but he scuffed his shot after bursting clear as Rovers coasted to victory.