Sturridge puts Santa in the shade

WHILE the future of Roque Santa Cruz was the inevitable sideshow to Mark Hughes’s return to Blackburn, a dramatic conclusion to what had seemed a routine Rovers win will have given the Welshman food for thought.

Hughes is believed to be the front-runner for Santa Cruz’s signature but the arrival of the Paraguayan would have knock-on effects — not least, throwing into doubt the future of a teenage talent who helped Hughes avert a potentially disastrous defeat.

Daniel Sturridge, 19, is in the final year of his contract at City and, aware that Chelsea are among the teams interested in him, will be even more reluctant to stay if Hughes adds Santa Cruz to his squad during the transfer window.

Sturridge, however, often looks like a burgeoning talent that City can afford to lose and he certainly increased his bargaining power after going on in the 70th minute yesterday.

Blackburn, who started the game at the bottom of the Premier League following the day’s earlier action, were ahead at that stage through a goal from Benni McCarthy and soon extended their lead when Jason Roberts exploited deficiencies that had always been apparent in the City defence.

“It looked like the game was beyond us. When you are two down in the closing stages, you feel it’s not going to be your day,” admitted Hughes. But Sturridge’s crisp shot gave them hope in the 87th minute and he provided an opportunity for Robinho to score an unlikely equaliser four minutes into stoppage time.

Hughes, disturbed that City had not committed Sturridge to a longer contract before his arrival in the summer, said: “Daniel made a real impact and I was delighted with him.

“I told him to go on, retain possession and take on people — and that’s exactly what he did. He is a great young talent and we are quite near to agreeing something with him, but the problem is that the power swings towards the player when he goes into the last year. We want to keep him and I think this is the best place for him.

“We are looking to bring in good players and that’s the right environment for a young player like him.”

Hughes has every reason to be grateful to the teenager because his own future would inevitably have been up for debate again if his unpredictable team had followed their convincing victory Hull with a defeat at his former club.

It would have been a deserved defeat because, apart from an enterprising start, City rarely coped with the authority of a Blackburn team that is clearly responding to the arrival of Sam Allardyce.

Only a dreadful miss in stoppage time deprived Allardyce of a win at Sunderland 48 hours earlier and they warranted all three points here after emerging unscathed from those opening minutes when Felipe Caicedo and Robinho missed excellent chances and a penalty claim with some merit was rejected after Robinho went down inside the area.

A penalty claim that met a similar fate was all that Rovers had to show in the opening half until Roberts, guilty of that late error at Sunderland, presented McCarthy with a stoppage-time chance to put them ahead.

Another encouraging start by City soon faded in the second half and Roberts, unmarked inside the area, stretched Blackburn’s lead with a looping header in the 83rd minute. Their failure to retain the lead dismayed Allardyce.

He said: “It feels like a defeat because you expect to win a game if you play so well for 90 minutes. When you are 2-0 up with minutes to go, you should be able to see the game out, but we paid a heavy price.

“We had nine men behind the ball, yet didn’t have a soul near Robinho when the ball was played to him. It was a good finish, but ball just dropped to him and we should have defended it better.

“We should have had three wins from my three games, but instead that’s four points we have given away in the last two games and that’s massive for a team in our situation.”

“All that was missing today was a bit of composure in the final minutes, but you make more mistakes when you’re tired. We didn’t get what we deserved, but that sometimes happens.”

REFEREE: Howard Webb (South Yorkshire) 6: Faced two awkward penalty appeals in the opening stages of a game which featured few other major problems. Stayed close to the action.

MATCH RATING: *** It promised so much in the opening minutes but both teams went on to make far too many mistakes. At least there was some late drama to make up for the slapdash defending.