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Big Sam's cup warning to Rovers
Blackburn Rovers, 14:35, January 5, 2009 ,
Johann Vogel, Matt Derbyshire and Zurab Khizanishvili are expected to secure rare starts for Blackburn in the FA Cup tie at Blyth.
Rovers boss Sam Allardyce has sent a message to the players who start the third-round clash against the Blue Square North minnows: don't blow the chance of gaining more first-team action by slipping to one of the most humiliating defeats in the tournament's history.
He told the Citizen: "They are proving to me they are capable of playing in Blackburn's first team and me having the confidence to tell or say I know I can put them in when I need them and know they can come in an do the job needed.
"If they let themselves down in that point of view and don't show me what they can do then, realistically, they are putting their career at Blackburn Rovers in jeopardy as far as I am concerned.
"That is the challenge for them. If I don't see they can live to the standard that I, Blackburn Rovers or the Premier League sets then they are going to struggle to keep their position at the club as far as I am concerned."
He added: "At this stage we can't afford any mistakes. We can't afford any errors and we can't afford to wait for players to come on. We need a team, that is determined and makes fewer errors than the opposition.
"Otherwise if you see that they become unreliable at this stage of the season. Certainly unreliable in the Premier League because it is the mistakes that get punished.
"Not the playing ability of the opposition playing around you, it is the critical mistakes that get punished more in the Premier League than anywhere else.
"There are not much bigger tests of character than Blyth on a Monday night. I think it will be a different experience. But if you want to take it in the positive way and say we are six games from the FA Cup final.
"You are six wins away from Wembley and while the draw is a very difficult one, it is much better than Liverpool away. We are the favourites and have nothing to gain and everything to lose but let's be professional about and lets go and win it."
The winners of the tie will face Sunderland at the Stadium of Light in the fourth round.