ACCRINGTON Stanley’s Dean Winnard will be forever grateful to Blackburn Rovers defender Ryan Nelsen if he goes on to have a long and successful career in professional football.

Winnard joined Stanley this summer following his release by Rovers and could be set for his first senior appearance at Rotherham on Saturday.

It was Nelsen, a fellow centre back, who proved to be Winnard’s most significant mentor at Rovers and the 19-year-old now hopes to put the New Zealander’s tips into action.

“I looked up to Ryan Nelsen a lot,” said Winnard, who could operate at full back this weekend.

“He was always talking to me and passing on tips. That was good and there were a lot of people who did that, Dunny and a few others.

“Ryan is a top man. He goes out of his way to do stuff just to help the young lads.

“He was just talking to me about basic defending stuff really.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to put his advice into practice now.”

Winnard was a regular with Rovers’ reserves and, after a trial with the Reds at the end of last season, signed for Stanley despite interest from Saturday’s opponents Rotherham and Championship club Doncaster.

“The manager at Blackburn reserves (Iain Brunskill) knew John Coleman and they had a little talk and said they’d have a look at me,” said Winnard.

“I came down and they had a look and liked what they saw. Doncaster and Rotherham were interested but Accrington were the first to put pen to paper so it was pretty hard to turn down.

“I spoke to the Doncaster manager and he said they were interested and wanted me to go back for pre-season. But it was too hard to turn down Accrington.

“Obviously being at a Premier League club it was top. It was much different to here in terms of facilities but it’s about playing first team football.

“I played loads of reserve games and learned a lot especially training with the first team and the quality of players they had there.

“Even in the reserve games I was playing against some top players from other clubs, players coming back from injuries and stuff, so I’d say I learned quite a bit.”