BARNSLEY boss John Hendrie has told Blackburn Rovers - it's £5 million, not a penny less, for Ashley Ward or forget it.

And that could signal the end of the Ewood interest in the striker, as their valuation is nearly £1 million below that figure.

Hendrie, who is being linked with York striker Richard Cresswell, made the First Division club's stance plain today.

He said of Rovers' bid: "If it's less than £5 million, they are wasting their time. We have not changed our tune at all.

"What they have to do is come in with £5 million and even then it would not be cut and dried."

Rovers have, in fact, made a £4 million bid, plus around £200,000 in "add-ons" and they do not appear prepared to go any further.

Chief executive John Williams would not completely dismiss all hope of a transfer but he insisted: "We have our valuation of the player and we believe we have made a good offer."

Rovers are certainly in the market for new men, following the appointment of Brian Kidd, but the speculation bandwagon has been running riot over the weekend.

"If a class player becomes available, then it is fair to say we will be interested," added the chief executive. But he also dismissed weekend stories of bids having been made for the likes of Nicky Butt, Mark Draper, Garyt Breen and Neil Lennon.

And Kidd himself said: "I've stopped reading the papers, we are being linked with everybody." According to the Sunday papers, Rovers have made bids of £5.5 million and then £7 million for Butt - not true according to Ewood.

Coventry boss Gordon Strachan confirmed no contact had been made over central defender Breen and the specualtion over injured Villa midfielder Draper came as a surprise to everyone.

Leicester would be very reluctant to sell Lennon, believed to be a target for Liverpool, and no bid has been made.

Meanwhile, Rovers stayed clear of the bottom of the table with their comeback at Nottingham Forest on Saturday when Kidd was full of praise for their efforts.

"I believe in these players. I knew they could get something from the game," he said.

"When Forest scored you could almost see confidence drain away but the performance in the second half spoke volumes for them.

"I am disappointed not to have won because we created enough chances and Dave Beasant has pulled off two or three unbelievable saves. "But I can't fault our players. I can only take positive things from it and I am even more pleased for them than myself."

Kidd substituted new signing Keith Gillespie towards the end, sending on Damien Johnson, explaining that the former Newcastle man had hardly trained recently because of a toe injury and was feeling the effects.

"But I am not afraid to throw in the kids," he said. "I thought we looked as though we had a goal threat on Saturday. That's good because you cannot play with caution all the time, you must play with a bit of a risk. That's one of my beliefs. It's going to take time to shape the team but they are a terrific bunch of lads."

Goals from Ben Chamberlain and Ben Burgess gave Rovers under-17s a 2-1 win over Tottenham at Brockhall.

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