Vauxhall Motors 0 Blackburn Rovers 3

Jul 14 2010 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

BLACKBURN were comfortable winners but the home side can take a number of positives from this entertaining encounter.

Vauxhall were without a number of first team players and fielded six trialists who were out to impress manager Carl Macauley.

Blackburn, who sent a team mainly consisting of reserve and youth team players, started the brightest and took the lead after 10 minutes when a right wing cross was headed home by Rovers forward Zac Aley.

Just four minutes later Aley could have added to his tally but his left foot shot was well saved by Motors keeper James Coates.

Vauxhall’s first decent chance of the game fell to midfielder Paul Brown but his angled right foot shot from 10 yards out was well saved by Jason Brown.

On 24 minutes it looked like Blackburn winger Callum O’Connor was through on goal but just as he was about to pull the trigger, man-of-the-match Tom Hannigan made a brilliant last ditch tackle to deny the Republic of Ireland under-19 International.

On 55 minutes, Blackburn doubled their advantage when Aley headed the ball back into the danger area and Rodrigo Branco converted comfortably from close range.

The goal of the game came after 60 minutes when Nick Blackman hit a great left foot strike from 15 yards beyond the outstretched keeper to make it 3-0.

It could have got worse late on for Motors but Tom Hitchcock’s penalty was saved.

PHIL JARVIS