JASON Steele reckons there will be no stopping Danny Graham once he gets his first goal for Blackburn Rovers.

Most of the build-up before Rovers’ trip to Middlesbrough today has focused on Jordan Rhodes.

The prolific striker is set to make his Boro bow against the club he left just five days ago in an £11m move.

But there will also be reunions for goalkeeper Steele and the man to who has taken over the mantle from Rhodes as Rovers’ main centre-forward.

Graham carved out a reputation as one of the best goalscorers outside of the Premier League with Watford and enjoyed a fine debut season in the top flight with Swansea City.

But he was unable to enjoy the same kind of success at Sunderland and he will return to the club where he started his career chasing his first goal since May last year.

Steele, who like Graham came through the Middlesbrough youth ranks, said: “You look at Danny and wherever he’s been in his career, barring Sunderland, where he didn’t get the chance he deserved, he’s scored goals.

“I know Danny really well because I grew up with him at Middlesbrough. So, while I’m always going to say that about him because he’s my mate, I never liked playing against him when he was at Watford.

“I think he just needs to score a few goals. One might come off his backside and then he’ll be off.

“He works that hard he’ll fashion his own chances, Danny, and once he gets on a run, there’ll be no stopping him.”

This afternoon Steele will be out to stop the man who scored 85 goals in 169 appearances for Rovers over the last three-and-a-half seasons.

He said of Rhodes: “Obviously he has his traits and things that he does, and we’ll know all about them, but he’ll know me inside-out as well, so it’ll be an interesting confrontation if that comes.

“Hopefully he doesn’t get near the goal. That’ll be the ideal scenario. But the likelihood is that he will. So we’ve got to make sure we’re at it and on top of our game.”

Second-paced Boro have lost their last two matches and their return of 37 goals is bettered by 10 teams in the Championship.

But Steele reckons the arrival of Rhodes will as good as guarantee them promotion.

He said: “They are up there with the best teams in the league but they probably didn’t or don’t score enough goals, and put teams to the sword like they should.

“They control pretty much every game and having somebody like him, with the record that he’s got, will benefit them massively.

“Just as long as he doesn’t score Saturday, it doesn’t bother me, but I can’t see them not going up, no.”

This afternoon’s match will be the first time Steele has faced his former club following his initial loan move to Rovers 18 months ago.

But the former England Under-21 international, who made 142 appearances for Middlesbrough before a serious ankle injury led to him falling out of favour, said: “It’s nice to be going back to where I started, it’ll be my first time back, but I’ll just treat it as any normal game.

“I played a lot of football up there. Football is football. Things change. People change. I got a nasty injury and to be fair to the manager he let me out to go and have the chance to play some football.

“And that’s exactly what I did.”