Blackburn Rovers FC

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Kalinic impresses Allardyce

28 Jan 2010 - 15:55:38

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Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allardyce has hit out at the critics who suggested that he should have introduced summer signing Nikola Kalinic into his starting line-up more quickly.

The 22-year-old joined Rovers for £6million from Hadjuk Split in the summer and has been used sparingly by a cautious Allardyce.

However, he has now scored six goals in all competitions, including a vital winner in a 2-1 Premier League victory over Wigan Athletic on Wednesday evening.

Allardyce commented: "We didn't want to rush him into the Premier League because it's a massive step at his age and the hardest place to play is on the frontline.

"We've fed him in as slowly as we possibly could. We've not listened to all the moaners who have said 'why have we spent that much money on him?'.

"We've been patient, even more patient than we needed to be at times because when we weren't getting the results we wanted. We still didn't put him in because we knew he wasn't ready.

"So we resisted and it's finally beginning to pay off for us."