Kean pleased with ´valuable´ point

Blackburn manager Steve Kean said his two half-time substitutions paid dividends in their 1-1 draw with Aston Villa on Saturday.

Kean was left furious by his side’s performance in the opening period, as they went into the interval one down when it could have easily been more, with tensions once again high at Ewood Park following pre-match protests from fans against the club’s ownership and management.

The Scotsman has revealed that he told his player’s exactly what he thought of their display in the first half, as he altered his starting XI at half-time to good effect.

“I think the point is important but I don’t think the first-half performance could have been any worse,” Kean said.

“I really felt for Formica and Petrovic because I could have taken anyone off, and I said that to them at half-time but we had to change something, we need a spark from somewhere.”

“I think the point is an important point because I don’t think any of the teams have made any ground on us, and we have made a bit of ground on some around us and if Fulham go and beat Wolves tomorrow, and they could then we will be out of the bottom three.”

“It could be a very valuable point and then out of the last four home games, we could have beaten Newcastle, so from a possible 12 points to get two wins and a draw and add that together with the five very hard away games that we’ve had it keeps up going.”

“Although it wasn’t three points today, it could be a very valuable point.”

Aston Villa boss Alex McLeish would have been delighted with his team’s first-half showing, but with his side on a current run of just one win in their last eight Premier League games, the former Rangers boss is tired of his side’s inability to learn from their mistakes.

“We lacked that ruthless, that has maybe hampered us all season,” McLeish said.

“We could sit here and talk about all the opportunities we have passed up today but we have to move forward and try and build on the first half performance.”

“We created chances in the second-half as well but Robinson made some fantastic saves today.”

“Blackburn came at us second-half and bullied us a little bit and we never really got that fluidity that we had in the first-half.”

Villa are currently 15th in the Premier League, just eight points off the relegation zone and although McLeish does not believe his side are in immediate danger he is wary of making the same mistakes as last season when he was relegated with Birmingham.

“I don’t think you can afford to be complacent, regardless,” McLeish said.

“Last year we were around about the same position maybe lower but we’ve got to believe we can climb higher up the table and that’s the challenge to them.”