ROVERS' youth coach Rob Kelly paid tribute to his gallant FA Youth Cup losers at Goodison Park, then packed them onto the team bus for an early night as he prepared for the club's next final - against Tranmere on Monday!

Runners-up medals in English football's premier youth tournament was no mean achievement and there was no disgrace losing to an excellent Everton side.

But it's the Lancashire FA Youth Cup final at Ewood on Monday when the young Rovers will be out to go one better.

"The first goal coming inside two minutes was a killer for us," said Kelly after last night's 2-2 draw meant a 5-3 aggregate defeat.

"On the Richter Scale of one to 10, it was a 10. "At half time we just asked them to give themselves, their parents and the supporters who travelled something to be proud of and they did just that.

"But you can't give a team like Everton a head start. Every time we gave ourselves a chance, we shot ourselves in the foot.

"But that's kids for you. Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes and learn from the good things too, because there were quite a lot of positive things for us.

"This is youth football's equivalent of the FA Cup and one or two showed they could play at the top level.

"If we had played in the first game and the first half last night as we did in the second it might well have been different.

"But at least we showed the true Blackburn Rovers in that second half.

"We didn't really play well enough over the two games to win it and Everton deserved their success.

"But it has been a tremendous season, remember we have won the league and it has been about 24 youth players not just those in the final."

Defender Keith Brown had to go to hospital after the game for stitches and must be doubtful for Monday's final.

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