JAMES Beattie isn't used to playing in such exalted company but the hat-trick hero of an emphatic Pontin's League victory at Ewood last night didn't look one little bit out of place.

The teenage Rovers striker was part of a front six that boasted international, as well as vast Premiership, experience - and he revelled in it.

Two's company but three goals are even better for a young man like Beattie who grabbed the ball and defied anyone to take it off him when the referee decided Tim Sherwood had been fouled in the penalty area after 18 minutes.

His spot kick was perfect and Rovers were assured of the points against a West Bromwich Albion side which also had a fair sprinkling of experience when the impressive Niklas Gudmundsson went on a fine run and finished clinically five minutes into the second half.

Then Beattie took centre stage. On 65 minutes he took a superb pass from Gudmundsson and blasted it home. Eight minutes later, Beattie produced a deft header from Steve Hitchen's cross to complete a well-deserved hat-trick.

With Sherwood and Matty Holmes dominating midfield, Stuart Ripley and Jason Wilcox providing a stream of crosses and Gudmundsson sparkling too, Rovers were always in command to delight a good Ewood crowd, though Bobby Mimms had to make three brilliant second-half saves to ensure a clean sheet.

ROVERS: Mimms, Gill, Reed, Coughlan, Hitchen, Ripley, Holmes, Sherwood, Wilcox, Beattie, Gudmundsson.

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