WIDE boy Kevin Cooper has been a real stalwart for Stockport County this season and could prove a handful as Blackburn Rovers go in search of an end to their recent barren run at Edgeley Park tomorrow.

Signed from his hometown club Derby, Cooper boasts the kind of all-round game that makes him such a valuable member of the County side.

If there is one area in which he has not yet really excelled it is when it comes to scoring goals.

But 25-year-old Cooper, who can operate on either flank, compares reasonably well to Rovers' two young wingers Damien Duff and Damien Johnson, with the Stockport man having spent more time than those two put together on the pitch.

Ironically, considering he gave way to Keith Gillespie at Birmingham on Tuesday night, Johnson emerges from the statistics provided by Carling Opta for the Nationwide League with a lot of credit. His pass-completion rate is higher than both team-mate Duff and Cooper, his cross-completion ratio is also the best and he is also the most successful dribbler in terms of runs completed.

Where Duff scores heaviest, compared to the other two, is that he has seven 'goal assists' to his credit.

Johnson has two and Cooper, suprisingly for such a prominent player, not a single one.

All three do their share of defensive work, in ratio to the time they have spent on the pitch, but Duff's statistics suggest he is the more threatening of the trio where it matters most - in the opposition penalty area.

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