Blackburn Rovers 0 Dundee United 0 (Rovers win 6-5 on penalties) - Peter White reports

TIM FLOWERS was the Rovers hero in their opening game at the Idrottsparken last night.

The England goalkeeper pulled off a superb early save to thwart what Gary McSwegan and ended even better.

Four minutes into the second half, Ian Pearce tripped Dundee Utd substitute Robbie Winters, but Flowers flung himself to his left to parry Andy McLaren's penalty.

It was great stuff from Flowers who looks in peak condition but, those two incidents apart, Rovers were the better team for most of the 50 minute match.

They had much more of the possession with the Scots chasing shadows at times and they knocked the ball about to good purpose.

Per Pedersen led the attack well and there was a good deal of mobility and interchanging of positions to their play.

In only the fifth minute, for example, just before Flowers' fine save from McSwegan, Pearce burst forward to let fly from more than 30 yards - the ball going just wide.

Rovers' wingers often moved inside to allow the full backs to get forward and, considering it's such early days, there was a commendable edge about their play.

It almost paid off when Pedersen did well to escape a defender on the left and Graham Fenton's touch at the near post was only just wide. Then skipper Tim Sherwood showed his quality with a lovely ball to Jason Wilcox who also blasted his shot off target.

Rovers were particularly menacing down the left flank but almost came unstuck in the opening period of the second half when United suddenly sparked into life.

A McLaren free kick was only just over and when the same player's penalty was saved, Flowers rubbed salt in the wound with terrific reactions to stop the follow-up shot from Winters.

Having settled down again, Rovers looked the side more likely to win and Patrick Valery brought appreciative applause from the crowd with a delightful piece of skill down the right.

Tightly marked, the Frenchman completely wrong-footed one defender with a flick of the ball and quick turn, then nutmegged another before getting in his cross.

A minute from the end, Pedersen showed good skills and strength to shake off two Dundee defenders before shooting just too high. No goals but it had been a decent performance.

Gary Croft tried to get forward at every opportunity and Sherwood and Billy McKinlay were on top in midfield.

Good to see Henning Berg and George Donis both fit enough to get a full run too.

As a training exercise it was well worth while and, knowing they were only playing 25 minutes each way, it probably encouraged the players to put everything into it.

The obligatory penalty shoot-out, staged after each game in case it was needed to separate the teams at the end of the tournament, saw Rovers win 6-5.

As it turned out they didn't need that advantage but there were six excellent penalties from Rovers - converted by Wilcox, Pedersen, Sherwood, Fenton, McKinlay and Valery.

Rovers: Flowers, Valery, Pearce, Berg, Croft, Donis, Sherwood, McKinlay, Wilcox, Pedersen, Fenton.

Dundee Utd: Dykstra, McKimmie, Malpas, Pressley, Perry, Pedersen, Olofsson, Zetterlund, McSwegan (sub Winters 26 mins), Dolan, McLaren.

Referee: P O Stahl (Norrkoping)

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