John Eustace has hailed the impact of Sam Gallagher since his arrival at the club and believes he will be a vital player for Blackburn Rovers between now and the end of the season.

Gallagher has been a big asset to Rovers since returning from a five-month injury lay-off, sparked by a calf injury in September.

The striker scored a well-taken goal at Deepdale after setting up the first for Sam Szmodics. His presence up front has been crucial over the last month.

Eustace will work to strike a balance between maximising Gallagher's strengths whilst also managing his workload to ensure he doesn't break down.

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"You can see that Preston are a very physical team, we needed Gally there for 95 minutes," Eustace said.

"He put his body on the line, scored a fantastic goal. I am really pleased he's part of the group and until now and the end of the season, he will play a massive part in what we want to do.

"It's about managing a lot of players at the moment, we had Scotty (Wharton) back, Hedges a third game in a week, he was magnificent for an hour.

"We have players on the pitch who haven't had enough game time but we're asking them to go through the barrier.

"We have to look after them all, it's about the group and the squad. Gally, it was his first 95 minutes for a long, long, long time. We are pushing them through barriers which we have to do as a group to go through the tough moments.

"The way he started on the front foot with the goal and his work rate off the ball, he grew in confidence during the game. His battling skills were there for everyone to see."

Set-pieces remain a hot topic of conversation within the fan base after conceding from two more against Preston. Rovers have conceded 14 times from those situations, more than any other side in the division.

Assistant manager Matt Gardiner has a strong background with coaching that area. The coaching team are collaborating at the moment and Eustace will assess that situation as time passes.

"It's a collaborative effort at the moment," Eustace said.

"It is something we're looking at, we've been in for a week and you can't change everything straight away with the amount of games that we've had.

"We haven't had much time to train. We're tweaking little things here and there. At Birmingham, we defended them very well.

"We just need to keep working on the training field and work as hard as we can on that.

"We have to give responsibility to the players to understand what it takes to defend the goal. It's not just the first phase of the attack, it's the second and third phase until we clear the ball out of the danger zone.

"That's what we have to do on the training field and we will be doing that. It's evident that we didn't do that on Saturday.

"The second goal is very disappointing but then I thought we defended the set-pieces very well. We're taking short steps and trying to improve game by game.

"We played against the most aggressive and physical team, based on stats. The way we defended the box was exceptional.

"Apart from the second goal, I was pleased with how we put our bodies on the line. We've been in for a week and we know we have to improve in those areas.

"We showed good determination to keep the ball out of the net apart from that one sloppy moment."

Rovers travel to Cardiff at the start of an important week. The Bluebirds have won one of their last seven games in all competitions.

"Cardiff are a good team, a good football team," Eustace added on the test

"We played them earlier in the season at Birmingham. They're coached very well but we see it as a chance to stamp ourselves on the game.

"The most important thing for me is that it is another opportunity to grow and keep building to see where it takes us."