Norrkoping 0 Blackburn Rovers 3 - Peter White reports

THE fact that Blackburn Rovers won the Jubilee tournament in Norrkoping's impressive Idrottsparken last night won't count for a thing when they open up against Derby County in the Premiership next month.

But it was the manner of their performance against the hospitable Swedish hosts which mattered.

And goals for Kevin Gallacher (2) and Chris Sutton won't go amiss either.

The three-cornered tournament, to help celebrate Norrkoping's centenary, saw each team play two games of 25 minutes each way and was ideal for the sort of build-up Rovers are doing.

With the number of players manager Roy Hodgson has taken to Scandinavia he is virtually able to field two different teams and he's happy with that.

"I think it's a great advantage at the moment because the players are much more in tune to working at the intensity I want them to work," he said.

"If I push them at the intensity that I was pushing them through 90 minutes of football after all the hard training we have done, we might be getting muscular problems."

The manager, in fact, felt the games were proving a welcome break for the players from their gruelling twice daily sessions and it certainly looked like that.

They have seemed sharp and eager mentally and physically, though it must be remembered these are only pre-season matches. Once they got in front in last night's second game, they rarely looked like losing the advantage.

Getting the full backs into the attacking play certainly seems to be one of Hodgson's traits, even when he has his wide men in midfield.

And the basic passing principles were evident again as Rovers tried, and succeeded on many occasions, to dominate possession.

Gallacher and Sutton also proved too powerful a combination for the Swedes - mid-table in their own league - to handle.

Rovers went in front with their first goal under Hodgson's regime coming from Gallacher after 16 minutes.

Partner Sutton showed great persistence and was the creator with the help of a deflection. Gallacher was left to fire home right-footed from about eight yards.

Tim Flowers saved well from Henric Karlsson three minutes later, but it was Norrkoping keeper Dick Last who was the busier just before half time with saves from Jeff Kenna and Graeme Le Saux.

Five minutes into the second half, it was Sutton's turn to score, thumping home a powerful penalty after Niklas Gudmundsson had been fouled by Sulo Vaattovaara. A third arrived with 10 minutes left and great credit went to Stuart Ripley who had just crossed for Nicky Marker to force an excellent save with a header.

This time Ripley played a perfect through ball to Sutton, Last came out and did well to block the striker's shot, but the ball bounced up slowly against a post.

Gallacher was in quickly to finish it off from close range.

Jason Wilcox set up a hat trick chance for Gallacher and Le Saux was only just wide with a screamer, while Par Andersson showed good pace only to fire wide in the last minute.

It was a good exhibition, well received by the 3,907 crowd and Rovers can take heart from their progress.

Faced with a four and a half hour trek back to their training camp Rovers had been put into the first two matches so they could make an early start.

So one of their tour organisers collected the Trophy on their behalf. Hodgson's satisfaction, in any case, would come not from the silverware but from the attitude and efforts of his players.

For some reason, the teams had a three apiece penalty shoot-out which finished 2-2, Sutton and Lars Bohinen scoring, Le Saux shooting over.

It didn't have any bearing on the outcome of the tournament as Dundee United were left needing to beat Norrkoping by a bigger margin than 3-0.

Their final game finished 0-0, leaving the Scots in second place.

Rovers: Flowers, Kenna, Marker, Henchoz, Le Saux, Ripley, Flitcroft, Bohinen (sub Andersson 40 mins), Gudmundsson (sub Wilcox 44 mins), Gallacher, Sutton.

Norrkoping: Last, Samuelsson, Vaattovaara, Saarenpaa, Strom, Cetinkaya, Suominen, Aslund, Floren, Fyhr, Karlsson (sub Andersson 39 mins).

Referee: P O Stahl (Norrkoping).

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