ROVERS: All Ovre bar the scoring

IT TOOK Roy Hodgson just a few sentences to sum up Blackburn Rovers' final game of their Scandinavian tour in Copenhagen on Saturday.

"We played very well" he said. "We attacked well, we defended well and we took our goal chances badly.

"It's a long while since I have seen a team create as many goal chances in a single match and you cannot be very satisfied at the end when the score is 1-1 and really it should have been something like 10-0."

I couldn't really have put it better myself. Double figures is perhaps a slight exaggeration, but the manager's point was well made.

He gave praise where it was due, but quite rightly added the rider that, without converting enough of the welter of scoring opportunities which they created, Rovers let themselves down against opposition who should have been overwhelmed.

Martin Dahlin's eagerly-awaited debut was a typical mixture which reflected a one-sided game.

He played for an hour, helped create chances and got on the end of two particular good ones himself. But in the torrential rain of Copenhagen, Dahlin, like so many of his team mates, failed to get the goals to reward a decent performance.

It was encouraging on the one hand to see Hvidovre - relegated from the Danish Super League at the end of last season - dominated to such an extent. But it was also very disappointing not to see Rovers claim the comprehensive victory they should certainly have had.

Perhaps it is because it is still relatively early days in the build-up.

"It might be sharpness and timing and, at the end, a lot of players were very tired," said Hodgson.

"We have worked very hard for 10 days. We have not been training in order to beat Hvidovre, we have been training to win against Derby County in the first game."

As well as Dahlin, Rovers also handed a debut to goalkeeper John Filan and, while he really had little to do, he did show very competent handling and kicking despite the teeming rain.

The game could have been over as a contest by half time as Rovers stepped up from a quiet start to take complete control.

They were skippered by Graeme Le Saux - "simply because he was the senior player in the team" said Hodgson with no ulterior motive - and it was Le Saux himself who put them ahead in the 34th minute.

Rovers had already been close on three occasions. Dahlin, set up by Ian Pearce and Jason Wilcox, who had a good game, should have done better than allow the keeper to save from him at the near post. There was hard luck for Le Saux when his free kick struck the crossbar, Per Pedersen lost two defenders to strike a post three minutes later, and Dahlin did likewise before firing just wide.

The breakthrough had to come and did so in spectacular fashion .

Not for the first time, George Donis was fouled and Le Saux let fly with the free kick from what looked like more than 30 yards. His superbly struck shot took a deflection on the way past the helpless keeper.

Dahlin set up Wilcox to bring another good save from the excellent Sten Christensen who was in action again soon afterwards to thwart Lars Bohinen after a combination with Wilcox and Dahlin.

A one-goal lead was scant reward at half time and the game followed a similar pattern after the break.

Dahlin should have done far better when he headed over an open goal from a Donis cross, then failed to get sufficient contact on a cross from Le Saux.

There was a warning for Rovers when Hvidovre captain and dangerous striker Soren Andersen rattled the bar with an opportunist effort in the 56th minute.

True enough, after yet another good save from Garry Flitcroft, Hvidovre equalised in the 67th minute. It was not a good goal to concede, a left wing corner finding the head of Andersen whose effort was half stopped by Filan but had just enough power to go in.

Rovers had plenty of defenders back to deal with the corner, but didn't.

Even so, I counted six more excellent chances for Rovers to win the game.

Three fell to Graham Fenton, two to Kevin Gallacher and one to Donis but they either missed the target or keeper Christensen proved unbeatable.

Rovers played the last few minutes with 10 men but still pressing forward. Bohinen, who had been prominent, was taken off as a precaution against a niggling calf strain and they had used all their outfield substitutes.

It was an excellent pre-season workout, though Rovers should have had the goals to reflect the superiority. For long periods they ran the Hvidovre defence ragged.

There were bookings for Patrick Valery and Flitcroft to add to one by Tim Sherwood in Norrkoping last Tuesday. Whether they count towards the Premier League remains to be seen.

Hvidovre also had two men cautioned, Carsten Thuno and Claus Nielsen, both coincidentally for fouls on Donis.

Hodgson underlined the point about Rovers' sloppiness in front of goal when he added: "Martin Dahlin did well and his movement was very good.

"But he will not be happy with himself. Front players are never happy with their performances when they miss goal chances and I am sure there will be a lot of players who, despite my comforting words, will not be very happy with this.

"Because goals are not easy to come by and when you have such simple goal chances as we had at least a good percentage of them should be taken."

If that makes the manager sound a hard taskmaster, all well and good.

Hvidovre: S Christensen, Thuno, Porsager, A Nielsen (sub Andreasen 65 mins), Hallum (sub J Christensen 90 mins), Markussen, Tengbjerg, C Nielsen (sub Rasmussen 76 mins), Conteh (sub Gernsoe 82 mins - sub Holm 86 mins), Clausen (sub Jensen 71 mins), Andersen.

Rovers: Filan, Valery (sub Croft 76 mins), Pearce, Marker, Le Saux, Donis (sub Fenton 76 mins), McKinlay (sub Flitcroft 60 mins), Bohinen, Wilcox (sub Andersson 60 mins), Pedersen, Dahlin (sub Gallacher 58 mins).

Referee: C Gerner (Copenhagen).

Attendance: 2,251.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.