NEW signing Dwight Yorke is set to make his Blackburn Rovers debut tonight - much to the delight of chief executive John Williams.

Rovers face Bundesliga side 1FC Nuremburg in Weismain this evening in the second of their pre-season tour games.

Yorke flew out to join his new team-mates at the weekend after completing his cut-price £2m move from Manchester United on Friday.

Reports suggested that Rovers paid such a low fee for the 30-year-old - believed to be around £3m less than the Old Trafford club had initially wanted - because they had to pay his inflated wages.

But that was quickly denied by Williams, who is delighted that Yorke, after two years of relative inactivity at United, is out to prove himself.

"Dwight's wages have fitted well within our existing wage structure at Ewood Park," said Williams.

"He has taken a pay cut to come to us and has based his pay structure around a performance-related deal.

"That's good business for both us and Dwight as it means that if he does well, we do well, and shows his hunger and desire to perform for Blackburn Rovers."

The new striker could be joined in the starting line-up by two other summer signings as defenders Andy Todd and Sebastian Pelzer also prepare for debuts.

Graeme Souness has also included Israel captain Shimon Gershon in their squad for tonight's clash.

The Hapoel Tel Aviv defender spent last week on a pre-season camp with his club in Holland, but bid farewell to his team-mates and coaching staff on Sunday.

Speaking from Eindhoven, the talented stopper who is out of contract at Hapoel which will be awarded compensation by a FIFA tribunal, said: "I'm leaving for Germany to meet with Blackburn's boss Graeme Souness together with my agent Pini Zehavi.

"Rovers have been preparing for the forthcoming season like I did with Hapoel here in Holland.

"Apart from the talks, I'll take part in a few training sessions and hopefully we can agree terms so I can join the club even though nothing has been agreed so far".

Gershon was looking forward to tonight's game, despite Rovers being well catered for in the central defensive department: "Hopefully it will not be my first and last match for the Rovers," he concluded.

Rovers got their pre-season tour off to a flying start on Friday with a 9-0 win over Abtenau with Craig Hignett scoring four and Ciccio Grabbi two.

Rovers trained on Saturday, with Yorke meeting his new team-mates for the first time, and had Sunday off.

They travelled to Weismain yesterday, which is 70km from Nuremburg and trained at the stadium early yesterday evening.