Fevre pitch

The Blackburn Rovers boss moved in quickly on his old club after it was decided that England's Alan Smith, who only worked in a part-time capacity at Ewood, would be leaving at the end of the season.

But the appointment of Fevre, which has not yet been officially announced by the club, will still come as a major surprise - not least for the fact that Rovers have managed to tempt him away from Old Trafford.

Highly rated, very experienced and well known to Kidd from their time working together in Manchester, Fevre's acceptance of the Rovers job has only to be rubber stamped.

And it is seen as a key appointment at Ewood, where an unprecedented sequence of long-term injury problems has been a worrying factor for some time. Ever since he arrived in December, Kidd has made it clear that he aimed to try to do something about the continuing seriousness of the injury situation and he wanted full-time commitment in the physio's department.

That was not possible for Smith, who had the England duties as a well as his private practice.

Rovers advertised nationally for a new senior physio, following Smith's departure, and they will have had to make Fevre a very good offer to tempt him away from Old Trafford.

But that is what they have done and an official announcement can be expected from Ewood either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Fevre will join Rovers next month and I understand that Mark Taylor, who already works full time at the club, will be staying on to work with the new man. Meanwhile, speculation on the transfer front with players has concentrated on linking Rovers with Bury defender Chris Lucketti.

As we reported on Friday, however, there are few indications that they have a serious interest in the Gigg Lane star.

Kidd has seen several Bury matches but it is more likely he was keeping tabs on their goalkeeper Dean Kiely, who recently joined Charlton for £1 million.

With the club in the market for defensive recruits, Lucketti is a good player whose name cannot be totally ignored. But I believe they are likely to concentrate their efforts elsewhere. In the other direction, one report linked Garry Flitcroft with a £2.5 million move to Sunderland once he has proved his fitness after a bad "ankle" injury.

Flitcroft, who signed a new long-term contract earlier this year, has already said he is staying and looking forward to playing under Kidd's management - having now recovered from knee, not ankle, surgery.

Kidd also knows and rates the midfielder highly, even though Flitcroft has not yet played a game since the manager was appointed. Sebastien Perez's projected £2.5 million move to Marseille will not be completed until June 30, as was always the plan.

Providing there are no late hitches, he will go from Bastia, where he has been on extended loan, to Marseille after that date.

Damien Johnson gained his first senior international cap for Northern Ireland on Saturday when he went on as a 74th minute substitute in the 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland in Dublin.

Damien Duff and Lee Carsley both started the game for the Republic in the fund-raising game which drew a crowd of just over 12,000.

Burton O'Brien, the young midfielder who joins Rovers this summer from St Mirren along with David McNamee, will be hoping to make his Scottish under-21 bow this week.

The Scots are hosting a triangular tournament this week involving both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and they kick off the competition tonight against the latter in Elgin.

O'Brien has been a regular in the St Mirren midfield at the age of 17, as well as catching the eye of the international coaches.

Colin Hendry picked up a Scottish FA Cup winners medal at Hampden on Saturday when Rangers defeated Celtic 1-0 in a poor game, Rod Wallace scoring the only goal.

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