MANAGER Paul Ince was pleased with the workout that his players got in the pre-season friendly defeat by 1899 Hoffenheim.

Despite the scoreline in Austria, the Rovers boss was happy with the night's work as they build towards the Barclays Premier League opener against Everton on August 16th.

"There are a lot of things we can improve on and we know that, it was our first game of the tour, and we'll get better as it goes on," said Ince after the game.

"Results at this stage don't matter, it is all about getting the lads fit and gearing towards the Everton game.

"Every manager will be saying exactly the same thing, it is a case of getting ourselves right, getting ourselves fit, learning the way that we want to play, so these games are good because you see things that you need to work on and we'll be working on them for the next two or three weeks before the season starts.

"The lads are in good spirits, obviously there were a couple of sloppy goals from set-pieces but we had a young back four. It was a good exercise and we got a lot out of it."