Micky Mellon paid tribute to the efforts of Tyrone Barnett after the striker's goal saw League One Shrewsbury Town dump Blackburn out of the Capital Cup first round with a 2-1 win.
Shrewsbury were full value for their victory, which saw them contain the hosts until the closing exchanges, though they got some help when taking an eighth-minute lead.
Ryan Nyambe, who was making his debut for Blackburn, played a stray pass into the path of Abu Agogo and although Jason Steele saved his shot, the rebound fell kindly to James Collins who tapped home.
The 17-year-old Nyambe was involved in the equaliser after half an hour, as Liam Lawrence diverted his powerful cross into his own net, but parity lasted all of two minutes as a poor clearance eventually found its way to Barnett and the striker rifled into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
And Mellon, whose side was promoted from League Two in May, spoke highly of Barnett's commitment to improve his fitness.
He said: "He came to us at Christmas and it was tough because he came into a winning team and group and he wasn't fit but he went away in the summer and has really gone for it and come back in unbelievable shape so we knew the big man would have a good go for us and you've seen it tonight. He's really important to us."
Shrewsbury were indebted to goalkeeper Jayson Leutwiler, who kept out Fode Koita in the second half and the Rovers substitute headed wide late on but the manner of the visitors' performance and football on show pleased Mellon too, and both Barnett and Collins could have stretched the lead in the second half.
"We encourage them to be brave and go and play," he said.
"We don't have a go if they give the ball away because we're saying 'go and play, go and express yourself.' There's always an objective we're trying to achieve. But we want them to be brave and play.
"We've messed it up at times and given goals away but for all that time you give it away and you perform like that tonight, it's worth it."
For Blackburn, the result meant that for the third successive year, Blackburn have gone out in the first round to League One opposition and manager Gary Bowyer was disappointed with the 'naive' defending.
He said: "We gave players an opportunity and as a manager there's times that all you can do is provide them with an opportunity to stake a claim for a place in the team. Some have made it interesting for Saturday and some have made it easier.
"We have to stop conceding soft goals and that's what it was. We equalised, young Ryan did ever so well with his cross and it was obviously a situation when we needed to be switched on straight from the kick-off and it was naive from us."
Source: PA
