ASHLEY Ward today admitted the chance of a return ticket to the Premier League was too good to turn down after completing his on-off move to Bradford City.

After a week of talks, the 29-year-old striker's move to Valley Parade was finally rubber-stamped yesterday in time to make his City debut against Liverpool today.

And the former Barnsley man is keen to prove he still has what it takes to perform at the highest level.

"I spoke to Graeme Souness over the summer and he said I was one of the players he didn't want to sell," said Ward, following his £1.5million move.

"But things change quickly in football and when Bradford came in for me it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

"They are a club who have made progress both on and off the field and they have an impressive list of summer signings.

"It's been great for the club to bring in players of the calibre of Dan Petrescu and Benito Carbone.

"They were also looking for a target man, which is why they went for me, and I hope I can be an asset to the side."

Ward became City's sixth new signing of the summer after putting pen to paper on a four-year contract.

And he is delighted to be back in the top-flight after his move to Rovers failed to live up to expectations.

"I went to Blackburn because I thought they were going to be a Premier League force for a number of years," said Ward.

"But since then there's been three managers in 18 months and the club have, obviously, been relegated. So a move to Bradford is an opportunity for me to get back in the Premiership where I have played most of my football."

Meanwhile, Graeme Souness and his squad were today trying to pick up the pieces following the shock of Jack Walker's death.

Rovers were in action this afternoon at Crewe's Gresty Road and Souness is looking to build on last weekend's 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace.

"It's a word I've not used very often in my career as a manager but I thought last week we were 'excellent'. But that counts for nothing today," said Souness.

"It's going to be a hard game for us because they were beaten by Fulham last week and they'll want to get some points in the bag as soon as possible.

"You can talk about statistics and you can talk about form but that means nothing.

"Last year we let ourselves down badly because we didn't fulfil our full potential and we didn't set about teams in the way we should have done in terms of confidence and professionalism."

Nathan Blake has been named in the Wales squad to play Belarus in Minsk on September 2 in the World Cup qualifying group five.

Rovers' Academy side beat Chelsea 3-2 with two goals from Ben Burgess and a clinching penalty from Marc Richards in the Jersey Tournament. They now play Benfica tonight for a place in the final against Manchester United or Sporting Lisbon.