IT'S been an eventful few days in the life of Ciccio Grabbi.

Last weekend, the 26-year-old striker became a dad for the first time when his wife Eli gave birth to their new son Eduardo.

Then six days later Graeme Souness's new £6.75 million signing announced his own arrival in English football with his first goal in a Blackburn shirt as Rovers turned up the heat in their pre-season preparations.

By his own admission, his three previous appearances since his big-money move from Ternana had been low key to say the least.

But there was no doubting who the star of the show was here as the likeable Italian struck up an instant rapport with new strike-partner Matt Jansen which had Souness purring with smug satisfaction.

"I'm convinced Ciccio and Matt will be a good partnership together," said the Rovers boss.

"Obviously, it's going to take time because this was only the first real game they've played together.

"Before this game, Ciccio had only played about 75 minutes of football for us because of his foot injury and the fact his wife gave birth to their son a week ago.

"So this was his first real game and he'll be all the better for it.

"His goal wasn't the most spectacular I've seen but then we've got plenty of people in the team who can score spectacular goals.

"I want someone who'll get the tap-ins and maybe now we've got one."

When any striker moves to a new club it's vital from a confidence point of view that he breaks his goal-drought quickly to ease the burden of expectation.

So when the former Juventus man pounced on a rebound to fire Rovers ahead in the 13th minute waves of relief lapped around Valley Parade.

It was the defining moment of Rovers' pre-season preparations so far.

And the way in which he linked up generally with Jansen going forward, in terms of his movement and awareness, left the visiting fans begging for more.

But Grabbi's display aside, there were plenty of other positives to come out of Rovers' most accomplished pre-season performance so far.

Young centre backs Martin Taylor and Gordon Greer were paired together at the back for the first time in competitive action.

And both emerged with a great credit, comfortably snuffing out the threat of Bradford dangerman Beni Carbone.

Wide-men Damien Duff and Keith Gillespie again looked lively down the flanks, providing a stream of decent crosses for Jansen and Grabbi to feed off.

And the general tempo and fluency of movement in Rovers' approach play was hugely impressive at such an early stage in their preparations.

Souness's biggest headache, however, is likely to centre around who to play in midfield.

Last season, Garry Flitcroft and David Dunn formed a powerful alliance which turned out to be the real heartbeat of the team as they clinched promotion from Division One.

But Tugay's arrival from Rangers over the summer has now given Souness further options in that department -- leaving the manager with some tough decisions to make over the next few weeks.

Rovers started brightly enough as Jansen fired just wide following a flowing move involving Grabbi, Duff and Tugay.

Then Jansen rattled the bar with another scorching effort after a neat interchange between him and Grabbi.

As the Bradford defence creaked under the pressure, it only seemed a matter of time before Rovers made the breakthrough.

And sure enough, the moment all visiting fans had been waiting for duly arrived in the 13th minute.

Stig Bjornebye launched a long ball forward from deep inside his own half,

Grabbi flicked a header into the path of Duff and the Irishman accelerated past two defenders before letting fly from the edge of the box and, though Gary Walsh made a block, there was that man Grabbi to steer the rebound into the empty net.

With Flitcroft and Tugay controlling midfield, Rovers then went in search of a second as Jansen went close with two further chances either side of the break.

Grabbi also singed Walsh's fingertips with a 30 yard blockbuster following another smart piece of link up play on the edge of the area.

And Greer and Taylor both threatened with free headers from Gillespie corners as the visitors continued to c0all all the shots.

In a rare breakaway, City briefly threatened an equaliser when the industrious Carbone crossed for Gareth Grant but the gangly striker's attempted knock back was clawed away by Brad Friedel with the unmarked Lee Sharpe waiting to pounce.

However, that respite was only temporary and Rovers finally wrapped up a well-earned victory with 10 minutes left when substitute Dunn picked out Greer with a raking cross and the flying Scotsman flicked a header past Walsh into the far corner. BRADFORD CITY...0 ROVERS...2

Grabbi 13, Greer 80 ROVERS

(4-4-2)

Friedel,

Curtis, Greer, Taylor, Bjornebye

Gillespie, Flitcroft, Tugay, Duff

Jansen, Grabbi

Subs: Dunn (for Flitcroft, 72) Not used: Blake, Filan, Bent, Hughes,

Hignett, Berg

BRADFORD

Walsh, Halle, Jacobs, McCall, Wetherall, Myers, Locke, Jess, Blake, Crabone,

Whalley. Subs: Molenaar (for McCall, 62), Sharpe (for Myers, 62), Grant (for

Blake, 62), Jorgensen (for Halle, 77), Atherton (for Whalley, 77)