ROY Hodgson saluted a "fantastic" result for Blackburn Rovers at Highbury on Saturday.

But a great day for the club was slightly marred, with Billy McKinlay picking up his fifth yellow card of the season to leave him facing a two-match ban.

The rugged Scot will have to sit out the home match against Crystal Palace and the FA Cup tie with Wigan following his second half caution.

That's a blow for Rovers as they stay right on the heels of leaders Manchester United but at least they have plenty of cover in the midfield area, as Garry Flitcroft underlined when he went on as a second half substitute against Arseanl.

Flitcroft made a significant contribution, including creating the third goal for Tim Sherwood.

Rovers can count themselves unfortunate - especially Colin Hendry - to have four players booked, but nothing could tarnish an outstanding victory built on the back of a tremendous second half performance.

The platform was provided by Hendry and Stephane Henchoz and Hodgson said: "I think both Colin and Stephane are good players and will get better if they can stay together as long as Tony Adams and Steve Bould or Martin Keown.

"We can't put them against the likes of Bergkamp and Wright on the training ground and when you have the crowd wanting a free kick every time they fall over you have to learn from these situations and make sure you don't give them a chance to profit.

"You can't expect Arsenal to lie down and the centre backs have to stand up to them."

Hodgson also had high praise for strikers Kevin Gallacher, who scored an outstanding goal, and Chris Sutton.

"Kevin's always bright and he picked up a lot of second balls," he said.

"They were so desperate to stop Chris Sutton that it gave him more chance. "He (Gallacher) doesn't score in training, he scores in matches - he's a great goalscorer."

The Arsenal fans soon became fed up of jeering Sutton, who handled the extra pressure well, and Hodgson said: "I am delighted he decided to be very disciplined and I thought one or two of the yellow cards were a bit unfortunate. It didn't seem to be that kind of a game to me.

"I said to him 'you have to be very careful. They are going to be inciting the referee to react against you. You have to be careful not to do anything untoward."

Rovers' players were justifiably jubilant about what was a very big victory.

Colin Hendry said: "It's so important to do well against your nearest rivals. I think it's a measure of how far we have come from last year.

"It's a great result and a great achievement.

"Last season we were the same players but not as good. That's where the manager comes in. He's changed things round a bit and we are able to cope a lot better. It's always good to play against two great strikers but I felt I won my own battle."

Maybe I am tempting fate but I think I have played against Dennis Bergkamp six times and he hasn't scored. Yet he's such a technically superb player.

"Highbury seems to have been a good ground for us in the past and we had a lot of chances late on. People have to appreciate that we could have won by a bigger margin."

Two goals from Paddy Connolly and one from Graham Cassin gave Rovers A a 3-2 win over Oldham. The B team drew 2-2 with Bury, Michael Lomax and Gary Hamilton on target.

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