A FORMER Blackburn Rovers player braved television's Dragons' Den and walked away with £150,000.

Richard Lee, 23, one half of retail firm Dr Cap, appeared on the BBC 2 show in the hope of securing investment from the show's panel of five famous business figures.

The programme featured a presentation from Richard, a former Rovers reserve goalkeeper, and his school friend Daren Duraide, 24, on their plans for expansion if investment was secured.

Richard and Daren set up Dr Cap, a store specialising in baseball caps, and have stores in Croydon and Leicester.

Their expansion hopes appeared to be dashed when four of the five dragons declined to invest.

But leisure entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne saw their potential and offered to put up the full sum of £150,000 for a 50 per cent stake in their business.

After careful consideration Richard and Daren accepted his offer.

Richard, who was on loan to Blackburn Rovers from Watford FC, last season, said: "Ideally we would have liked to only give up 40 per cent but we had a chat about it and decided to accept.

"Me and Daren didn't take it too seriously when we entered, we thought we would go and give it a chance.

"But now Duncan has invested in us and he is one of the best.

"When we filmed the show Duncan was interested and made an offer, they filmed the answers from the other judges after we agreed to accept his offer. The editing made it good TV."

Richard, who spent a lot of time on the bench, had hoped to stay at Rovers but is back at Watford FC this season and was seen playing in last Saturday's fixture against Manchester United.

He said: "We are looking to open five stores in the next year, we will provide specialist brands for people, the one closest to Blackburn would be a store in Manchester.

"I will be taking a back seat in the business and always will be, we both like it that way. I can concentrate on football and I think Daren likes to be in control, he's been managing the stores. We get on well and have only had minor disagreements."

They are currently looking for locations for their chain of Dr Cap stores.