BIRMINGHAM boss Trevor Francis claimed he had been surprised by Rovers' formation at St Andrews last night, playing with a sole striker in Ashley Ward.

And he blamed that, as much as anything, for the fact that it was a dour game with few chances.

"It was surprising to see just one striker for 75 minutes when Blackburn have people of the calibre of Matt Jansen and Nathan Blake on the touchline waiting to come on and Egil Ostenstad not even in the 16.

"They have plenty of options.

"But I suppose it was down to a combination of two things - Blackburn's recent slump in form and great respect for ourselves as we are in decent form shown by our results.

"They tried to smother us and keep it at 0-0 as long as possible to try to get a point. When the opposition come here and string five across the middle, leaving just one up front, it's going to be a problem. "On Saturday against Bolton it was a very open game. This was very tactical with a lot of endeavour, effort and determination but, in terms of a spectacle, one to forget.

"I thought it was a dogged performance.

"But we won't forget the result.

"Make no mistake they have some outstanding players and, at times, we were fully stretched.

"I thought our two centre halves were outstanding."

As Tony Parkes pointed out afterwards, however, despite what Francis had to say about only using one striker, Rovers created more opportunities than Birmingham did with two.

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