BILLY McKinlay hopes he has seen the back of his injury nightmare after he successfully made his return to action in the reserves last night.

The Scottish international midfielder played 67 minutes of the 1-1 draw with Manchester United's second string at Gigg Lane.

And after spending nearly 10 months on the sidelines following a succession of groin problems he now hopes he has made the first steps back on the road to a place in the first team.

"It was great to get a game under my belt - well an hour anyway," said McKinlay.

"I felt reasonably fit although, obviously, the sharpness wasn't there and it's going to take me a while to get that back.

"But the main thing is that I'm back.

"I've still got to keep working hard at my exercises and my rehabilitation.

"But getting that first game under my belt is hopefully that first step back to full fitness."

McKinlay's last full game for the first team was a 3-1 victory over Aston Villa in the Premiership back in February.

Since then a lot has happened at Ewood in his absence, culminating in Rovers being relegated from the Premiership and Brian Kidd getting the sack.

Now McKinlay is desperate to prove his full fitness as quickly as possible so he can help the team climb away from the wrong end of the First Division table.

But he won't put a timescale on when he thinks he will be ready for a first team return.

"When you've been out as long as I have it's difficult to start setting targets because if you don't get there you just end up feeling disappointed," said McKinlay. "So it's just a matter of getting as many games and training sessions in as possible and whatever will be will be.

"I only knew yesterday morning I was going to be playing last night.

"I'd been training for a while and we just decided to see how it was feeling, leave it to the last minute, and then see if I could get a game in.

"Obviously, it's difficult when you are out of action for so long but there's not much you can do about it.

"But I've got to thank all the medical staff, and Mark Taylor in particular, because they have worked their socks off to get me here through the good times and the bad times.

"It's been a real team effort."

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland international goalkeeper Alan Fettis could find himself in hot water after getting sent off in last night's reserve game.

Fettis angrily protested over United's hotly disputed late equaliser and the referee brandished the red card after the Rovers keeper allegedly pushed the assistant referee.

Defender Keith Brown was also shown a second yellow for his part in the protests.

Reserve team boss Terry Daracott said: "I don't condone the actions of our two players who were sent off and I will have to study the referee's report as to why he has dismissed them.

"But I think you might be looking for trouble if you run at referees and linesmen like they did.

"I want them to be aggressive but I want them to be controlled.

"I was very disappointed with the way the game finished though. "The players didn't think the ball was in and even one of their players had a little bit of a giggle about it.

"But I'll have to look at the video and see for myself.

"Overall, though, I was very pleased with the actual performance and I thought we deserved to win it."

Meanwhile, Rovers are continuing to move towards naming a successor to Brian Kidd with a managerial appointment looking likely to take place next week.

Tony Parkes is therefore expected to be in charge of the side again for Saturday's visit of Fulham.

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