Boss rules out star sale

Blackburn boss Paul Ince says he will reject any approaches for Roque Santa Cruz following reports Manchester City are keen.

Santa Cruz again proved his worth to Rovers when he fired them into the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup on Wednesday night and Ince has no intention of letting him go.

Manchester City are known to be very keen but when quizzed over whether he would reject an approach for the player, Ince simply said: "Yes, 150%."

Meanwhile, Ince was delighted with Santa Cruz as he came off the bench to score the equaliser before Rovers went on to win 2-1.

"Roque wanted to start, but I don't think he is quite there yet," Ince revealed. "Whatever the score had been, he was always going to play some minutes on the pitch, 20 or 35.

"I'm not sure if it was his first touch, but it is important to get him on because we have been playing well this season, our build-up play has been excellent and in that final third, we have lacked that clinical touch.

"He gives us that. We will see how he comes out of it, but he looked sharp when he came on. He needs games. It has been a stop-start season for Roque, but if he plays games, he will score goals, as he did last year. It was nice for him to get a goal."