Rovers to fight for their King
JOSH KING’S hat- trick in 19 minutes ensured he added his name to the list of Blackburn forwards on Premier League shopping lists when his contract expires at the end of the season.
It was a point not lost on his manager Gary Bowyer, who has struggled to keep Jordan Rhodes at the club, along with Rudy Gestede, who has attracted interest from Crystal Palace. But even those two proven scorers were eclipsed by 23- year- old Norwegian King.
The former Manchester United youngster’s pace and poise were too much for Stoke’s Premier League defenders to handle, even before they were reduced to 10 men just before half- time by a red card for Geoff Cameron.
“We’re in talks with Josh so the club are trying to take care of that,” said Bowyer. “Full credit to the owners, because they stuck by their valuation of Jordan Rhodes in the August window and Rudy in January. “Of course I hope we can keep them all this summer. We’ve got a long way to go before then and hopefully our situation might have changed and will make them want to stay here.”
Certainly an FA Cup fi nal appearance, which Blackburn have not enjoyed for 55 years, might go a long way towards convincing King, who was a reported target for QPR in the last window, that his career could develop nicely at Ewood Park.
“I’ve not heard anything. I’ve not really put any thought into the future,” said King, who spent the fi rst four years of his career at Old Trafford without making the grade.
“I just have to keep doing my job, which is to come in every day and work hard and when I’m given the chance take it and play well.”
King’s header equalised Peter Crouch’s early opening goal, before he was tripped by Cameron and Gestede shot Rovers in front from the penalty spot.
Within 10 minutes of the restart, King’s blistering pace had taken him away from the Stoke defence to calmly convert two one- on- one chances.
“I’ve not really met many defenders who could handle my pace but I thought Stoke would be a bit harder to play against,” said King.
“But when they got the red card it opened up, it makes it a bit easier.
“It’s my fi rst professional hat- trick and obviously I’m thrilled. I actually forgot I was meant to take the match ball home until Tony Grant, the assistant manager, reminded me on my way out.
“The lads have put some messages on it and I’ll look forward to reading it when I get home.” Former Blackburn manager Mark Hughes has now seen his team lose consecutive games 4- 1, fi rst at home to Manchester City and now to more modest opposition.
“We’re absolutely determined not to allow our season to drop off,” said Hughes.
“We’ve had a good season up to this point and two games are not going to change that. We’ll pick ourselves up, we obviously have to dust ourselves down. It’s been a diffi cult week.”
For Bowyer, thoughts now turn to tomorrow’s league visit to Cardiff and the Rovers manager conceded that he did not even know how to really celebrate such an upset.
“I don’t know. I didn’t expect to be celebrating, I didn’t plan to,” said Bowyer.
“My daughter climbed Mount Kilimanjaro last week and celebrated with a Mars bar, I think she said, so I might try that one!”