CAPTAIN Scott Dann hailed Blackburn Rovers’ attempts to cause a major FA Cup shock in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City.

After Dann’s 55th-minute strike cancelled out Alvaro Negredo’s opener on the stroke of half-time Rovers boss Gary Bowyer threw on Josh King and then strikers Jordan Rhodes and DJ Campbell in an attempt to find a winner.

Dann, for who it was a first goal of the season, said: “In the FA Cup anyone can beat anyone on any day and I think we showed that by the substitutions the manager made.

“We were positive about it, we showed we wanted to win the game and not just take a replay.

“We tried to win the game and unfortunately we couldn’t quite do it.

“We knew we’d played quite well in the first half and to concede a goal like that just before half-time might have knocked the stuffing out of us.

“But we knew if we carried on doing what we were doing in the first half we were hopefully going to get something out of the game and we stuck to it and we got our reward in the end.”

Rovers’ 16-goal top scorer Rhodes was rested and did not come off the bench until the 81st minute.

“I knew what the situation was as I knew how hectic the Christmas schedule had been,” said Rhodes of starting on the bench.

“It’s a team effort and it’s a squad game and it was by no means a weakened side. It was a proper FA Cup tie and it’s just a shame we couldn’t quite get that second.

“I don’t know how many times in the FA Cup a Championship side will have as a good an opportunity as we did to beat a Manchester City side with 10 men.

“But it wasn’t to be. The replay will be a tough ask but we’ll try our best.”

Before the replay Rovers, who are two points outside the Championship play-offs, have a home clash with Doncaster on Saturday.

And skipper Dann believes the City result can be a catalyst for a push towards the top six.

He added: “Coming out of the Christmas period we’re only a couple points off. We can take confidence from the way we’ve played against a top side in City and now it’s up to us to get into the play-offs and hopefully get the club back to where we all want it to be.”