BLACKBURN Rovers boss Owen Coyle has expressed his admiration for young Southampton striker Sam Gallagher – and backed his ‘honest’ group of players to learn from their opening day humbling.

Rovers’ 4-1 home loss to Norwich City on the first day of the Championship season underlined the need for Coyle to strengthen his squad before the transfer windows closes on August 31.

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He has been unable to add to his six summer signings in time to play in tonight’s EFL Cup first-round tie at Mansfield Town.

But he is attempting to make three further additions including England Under-19 international Gallagher on loan from Southampton.

“Without talking about anybody else’s players, he’s a very talented player,” said Coyle of the 20-year-old, 6ft 4in frontman.

“But as are a number of players and, if I was to tell you every conservation I have with every manager, we could be here for a very long time.

“But I think it’s fair to say he’s a very talented young player who did very well in pre-season for Southampton.

“But until we get something over the line then we’re not ones for committing ourselves.

“But it’s fair to say we are chasing two or three targets and if we get them then I’d think they’d be good players to add to the squad.”

Coyle, who also wants a left-back and another centre-back, went over the heavy defeat by Norwich with his players at training on Sunday.

And he said: “They are an honest group. They are conscientious. We knew everyone of us hadn’t done as well as we’d have hoped and as well as we’d have envisaged.

“As bad as we were, they were probably as good as they will be, but having said that we can only concentrate on ourselves.

“We picked the bones out of it, we analysed it, and within that they are a very honest group, and when you’ve got that honesty and integrity, you know you’ve got good people to work with.

“As horrible as it is, we don’t want to say we’ve forgotten about it, because we haven’t, but we have to move on quickly and understand the reasons for it and be prepared to deal with them better.

“It’s far better happening now than happening after the window closes, when we can’t affect anything. It was certainly a harsh lesson. But that’s the nature of the Championship.”

Rovers finished 15th last season and were limping over the line before ending the campaign with back-to-back wins.

And Coyle, who took over the Ewood Park reins two months ago, added: “We’re not, with all due respect, sitting here because we’ve inherited a team of champions. We didn’t. We inherited a team that finished where they finished last year.

“You don’t come in and sprinkle fairy dust and magic powder and everything falls into place. It takes hard work and a number of things to come together. But that’s what we’ll strive for.

“And as horrible as the feeling of Saturday was, it doesn’t lose sight of what I know to do in terms of bringing this together and all the bits and pieces needed.

“I’ve been here before. I’ve had horrible starts in the league and gone on to do very well. We’ve had a horrible game. A real bad day at the office. But what we can do is affect the games to come in front of us and that’s what we’ll try to do.”