Source: Team_Talk
Allardyce can't wait for Dunn return
Rovers travel to Dunn's former club Birmingham on Tuesday night in the Premier League but the midfielder is expected to sit the match out as he continues his recovery from a calf problem.[LNB]Dunn picked up the injury in the first half against Stoke last month, a match which was the first of three consecutive goalless draws in the league for Blackburn while he has been out of the team.[LNB]Dunn remains the club's leading scorer with six goals and manager Allardyce is hoping the 29-year-old will be fit to return for Saturday's game against Tottenham.[LNB]"It shouldn't be any longer than this week," Allardyce said.[LNB]"I would expect him to be fit at the latest for Spurs on Saturday, unless he has any more problems in training.[LNB]"Training last week was the main problem - he felt a little twinge again so we'll be a little bit more cautious and we are looking forward to getting him back.[LNB]"We need his goals. We have suffered badly in front of goal in the last few weeks and we must put that right now.[LNB]"Certainly with David being the leading goalscorer and provider of our goals prior to getting the injury just shows how much we have missed him.[LNB]"That is not to say we haven't created any chances - we have had some very good chances - but we haven't had the clinical finishing that we'd have expected from somebody else in the team."[LNB]Dunn has been Blackburn's talisman this campaign and Allardyce likened his importance within the team to that of Lee Bowyer, who has scored winners in three of Birmingham's last four games.[LNB]"If you look at Lee Bowyer at the moment at Birmingham, he has scored three in four and they have won all the games he has scored in," Allardyce said.[LNB]"That is very similar to Dunny in the early part of the season for us.[LNB]"People say it's only one player in 11, but when they are the man in top form as Dunny was and Lee Bowyer certainly is for Birmingham, then it shows you their importance for changing a draw into a win and what three points means to you."[LNB]The 0-0 draws against Stoke, Liverpool and Hull have been in stark contrast to Blackburn's early-season form, where they were scoring freely at home and conceding heavily away.[LNB]Allardyce has been pleased with the improved defensive displays, but having seen his players squander several match-winning opportunities in recent weeks, he is hoping for a greater end product from his forward line at St Andrew's.[LNB]"We have gone from one extreme to the other," Allardyce said.[LNB]"We have gone from the extreme of being able to score goals on a regular basis and then conceding too many, which caused us to only have one clean sheet.[LNB]"That made life very difficult to cope with - we got thrashed at Everton 3-0, thrashed at Chelsea by five, thrashed at Arsenal 6-2, but then we would come back home and be a completely different team, steamrolling the opposition.[LNB]"Now there is a 0-0 draw against Stoke and a 0-0 against Liverpool, and in those games we had many chances to have won and didn't.[LNB]"When we looked at the Hull City game, we had many chances again to score and we did score the hardest through Benni McCarthy, but that was unfortunately ruled offside.[LNB]"We will hopefully continue to make those chances, and on Tuesday night, start to convert them."[LNB][LNB] Birmingham Evens, Draw 5/2, Blackburn 13/5
