STEVE Kean said he was pleased with Blackburn Rovers' preparations so far this pre-season after the back-to-back games against Accrington and Morecambe.

Kean took the opportunity to give all his senior squad a significant run, with just Ryan Nelsen, Vince Grella and Ruben Rochina missing.

Goals from Keith Andrews and Nikola Kalinic gave Rovers a 2-1 win over Accrington in the opening game, while Mauro Formica's late equaliser earned them a 1-1 draw against Morecambe.

Kean said: “We trained for two hours on Friday and it is a part of the pre season where we are trying to play with the lads fatigued and I thought it was a good exercise.

“The second game was a little bit more intense, there was more sprinting distances.

"Speaking to the sport scientists, with the GPS on the back of the players shirts, they covered a lot of sprinting distances and I thought there were a lot of good individual performances.

"We had a really good training camp in Austria, that was good, and we have been at the training ground all week.

"They have been training really, really well. It is about making sure we peak at the right time.

"We are looking forward to keeping the work up because the lads have been excellent from day one.”