Blackburn Rovers’ Barrow boy set to face hometown club
Last updated at 13:13, Tuesday, 27 July 2010
BARROW’S Callum O’Connor is expected to be in the Blackburn Rovers squad playing at Holker Street tonight.
The Premier League club will send a mixture of reserves, academy and trial players for the pre-season friendly (7.45pm kick-off).
Jet-heeled right-back O’Connor, an ex-Barrow Celtic junior, signed for Blackburn five years ago and has progressed well at Ewood Park. The former St Bernard’s Catholic High School pupil is also a Republic of Ireland under-19s international.
Joining O’Connor in the Rovers squad tonight should be Georgia international and ex-Rangers defender Zurab Khizanishvili, 19-year-old Brazilian midfield triallist Henriques Haygnner and highly-rated teenage striker Aaron Doran, who already has three Premier League appearances under his belt. Blackburn first-team manager Sam Allardyce will not be at Holker Street. He is currently leading a 26-man Rovers squad on a tour of Australia.
Blackburn reserves are unbeaten so far this pre-season, having beaten Vauxhall Motors (3-0), Kendal Town (3-2), Southport (3-0) and Rhyl (2-0), all on the road, and will provide stiff opposition for the Bluebirds.
Barrow look set to be without injured quintet Nick Chadwick, Paul Jones, Mike Pearson, Gregg Blundell and joint-boss Darren Sheridan.
The FA Trophy winners could, however, field new faces at left-back and between the sticks. The names of those players were being kept under wraps.
The game will be Barrow’s seventh of a pre-season campaign which has so far delighted Dave Bayliss. The joint-manager said: “I think the lads are a million times sharper, a million times fitter compared to this time last pre-season.
“The training has changed slightly this year. We’ve been doing double sessions and the lads have been working really hard.
“Now we have games coming thick and fast and that will help improve our sharpness further.”
Entry to tonight’s game is £6 for adults and OAPs, and £3 for U16s.
l AFC and Barrow Raiders will do battle in a charity cricket match at Hawcoat Park on Sunday, August 8 (2pm start).
l The Bluebirds could be in line to scoop £4,000 if 20/1 shot Bagamoyo wins the 3.40pm Bluesquare.com Stewards’ Cup at Glorious Goodwood.
Each Blue Square Bet club has been allocated a horse in the race by the sponsors.
First published at 13:05, Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
is it me or does the club not have a single clue who the keeper is going to be next season?? surely the keeper should be getting as many games in to familiarise himself with his defence not just flit from one average trialist to another hoping to strike lucky
Have your say
I totally agree and the sooner they announce the new keeper is Alan Martin, the better for all concerned.
Posted by Slurpy Tigga on 29 July 2010 at 20:00