Ince stays confident despite Blackburn Rovers' loss in Austria

1:22pm Tuesday 22nd July 2008

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By Andy Neild »

BLACKBURN boss Paul Ince admitted there was ‘room for improvement’ after he watched Rovers slip to a 3-1 friendly defeat at the hands of TSG Hoffenheim last night.

After kicking off their pre-season campaign with a comfortable victory at Macclesfield last week, Rovers stepped up their preparations with a useful work-out against the Bundesliga newcomers in the Austrian town of Kufstein.

And although Rovers tasted defeat on the night, Ince was philosophical about the whole exercise afterwards, claiming he got to learn a bit more about his new team.

“It was another good work-out,” said the Rovers chief, who used a total of 22 players on the night.

“No disrespect to Macclesfield, but this was probably our first real game.

“We had an hour yesterday in training, eleven versus eleven, but the weather was diabolical and the pitch was cutting up, so to come here and play like we did was pleasing.

“There’s things we can improve on, and we know that.

“But this was the first game of our pre-season tour and we’ll get better as we go on.”

Chances were few and far between in a low-key first half, but then the game came to life with three goals in 14 minutes after the interval, before Hoffenheim snatched another deep into injury time, which gave the scoreline a rather flattering look.

Ince said: “It’s not about results at this stage of the season. If we lose every game in the run up to the new season but then go and beat Everton on the opening day, that’s all that matters, and every manager will be saying exactly the same thing.

“It’s a case of getting ourselves right, getting ourselves fit, and learning the way that we want to play.

“These games are good because you see things that you need to work on, and we will be working on them over the next two or three weeks, before the season starts.”

Aside from the result, the other downside on the night was an injury to Morten Gamst Pedersen, who got a nasty whack on the knee as a result of a badly-timed challenge.

“I’m crossing my fingers Morten is okay because that tackle was absolutely horrendous,” said Ince.

“It was a friendly game and you can’t let people get away with that, so that was disappointing.

“Hopefully, Morten will be okay in a couple of days..”

David Bentley (hamstring), Johann Vogel (thigh), Chris Samba (sciatica) and Zurab Khizanishvili (thigh) are also nursing injuries at the moment, so Ince decided not to risk them last night.

David Dunn, meanwhile, flew back to England yesterday after being told his partner was on the brink of going into labour.

“His partner is having a baby and it’s important to be there for the birth,” added Ince.