BLACKBURN Rovers left-back Stephen Hendrie has an extra bit of incentive to be in the best shape possible by the start of the Championship season, as he’ll be facing his first manager in the opening day fixture.

Norwich City arrive at Ewood for the big kick-off on August 6, led by manager Alex Neil, a man Hendrie knows well from his time at Hamilton Academicals.

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Neil, 35, was Accies player-manager in the 2013-14 season when he guided a team including young Hendrie into the Scottish Premiership via the play-offs.

The full-back moved to West Ham the next year and is now on a season-long loan under Owen Coyle at Rovers.

But he is already looking forward to the clash with the Canaries and revealed he found it funny that the two teams had been matched out of the fixtures computer first up.

He said: “Alex Neil was my manager at Hamilton.

“He went to Norwich and he’s done great, it was just a pity they got relegated.

“But we’ve got them first game this season and I’m looking forward to it.

“Some of my mates were saying, ‘When do you think you’ll play Norwich?’, and then somebody texted me saying, ‘You’ve got Norwich first game!’.

“I was just laughing because I’ve got a few people there from Hamilton Accies. Frankie (McAvoy, first team coach), obviously Alex Neil, and Tony Andreu’s there as well, so I know a few boys there.”

Hendrie has featured for Rovers in pre-season and is the only specialist left-back in the squad following the departure of Tommy Spurr to Preston North End last month.

The 21-year-old is looking to establish himself in the first team and gain experience of the Championship, which should in turn stand him in good stead when he returns to East London next May.

He will, of course, not be heading back to homely Upton Park, but rather the state-of-the-art setting on the Olympic Stadium which is the new home of the Hammers.

And he admits that breaking into Slaven Bilic’s squad, which will get a taste of European football this season in the Europa League, will be even tougher after the club’s success under the Croatian boss.

“It’s going to be hard to get into the West Ham first team,” said Hendrie.

“It was unbelievable to be on the bench (at West Ham), being part of the team was superb and they’re going to go places.

“The Olympic Stadium, I think we’ve sold 60,000 tickets. It’s incredible because the last stadium was only 35,000 (capacity), so to go up to 60,000 is an incredible fan base.

“Obviously the manager’s been brilliant and they’re just going upwards. There are some great players there.”

But Hendrie is in no doubt that he’s picked the right route for himself by moving to Blackburn this season.

He added: “To come to the Championship, it’s a great standard, a hard league, and Blackburn are a big club, so there was never any doubt in my mind.”