GARY Bowyer has urged hat-trick hero Josh King to maintain the performance levels he showed in Saturday’s FA Cup win over Stoke City – as the Blackburn Rovers boss mulls over a real selection dilemma up front.

King scored three goals and won the penalty for the other as Rovers thrashed their Premier League opponents 4-1 at Ewood Park.

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The Norwegian international has struggled to hold down a regular place at Rovers in recent times but has made it very difficult for Bowyer to leave him out for tonight’s Championship fixture at Cardiff City – even though Jordan Rhodes is available and in contention to start.

The Rovers boss has always been aware of King’s potential and has called on the 23-year-old to continue where he left off on Saturday.

“You’re always waiting for somebody to catch fire and Kingy caught fire on Saturday,” Bowyer said.

“He’s now got to maintain that and show the levels of consistency that you always want in your strikers.

“It wasn’t just his goals, you look at the chances he created and he got the penalty for us as well.

“You all saw what his main asset is, it’s his pace, and like anybody with that asset the thing you want from them is an end product - whether that’s a cross, a pass or the goals he managed to get on Saturday.

“He’s worked hard in training on his finishing and fortunately for us on Saturday it paid off.

“But he’s got to keep doing that, he can’t rest on his laurels.

“We won’t allow him to.”

Rudy Gestede also found the net against Mark Hughes’ Stoke, while Rhodes netted the winner against Rotherham seven days ago and fellow striker Chris Brown has also impressed after starting the last two league matches.

Bowyer admits deciding his strike force for tonight’s game will be one of the toughest choices he has had to make as manager.

“Very much so, everybody at the moment is putting a case forward for why they should be starting,” he said. “It’s fantastic. If you look at the progress this football club has made in terms of the recruitment and the type of people we have, Chris Brown has been immense for us since he went in, a different type, and Jordan Rhodes scored the winner on Tuesday night. We all know what he does ever so well.

“Mark Hughes has always been a top manager in my eyes and on Saturday after the game he was fantastic for what he said and how he spoke highly of ourselves in terms of the team and how they played. There’s no bigger accolade for Kingy and Rudy than Mark Hughes saying the two strikers were a real handful.

“The measure of (him) was how honest he was and how full of praise he was for our team.

“It was a massive compliment.”