There were mixed emotions amongst the playing personnel as Rovers' senior stars returned to training this morning from the two-week international break.

Whilst Ryan Nelsen was on cloud nine after leading New Zealand to their first World Cup finals in 28 years following their play-off success over Bahrain, it was an altogether different story for Irish international Keith Andrews, who suffered extra-time heartache against France.

And manager Sam Allardyce hopes both players can use their experiences to their advantage against Bolton this weekend.

"It is total opposites," he said. "Ryan will have a big smile on his face this morning and will be bouncing in through the door with the achievements of New Zealand of getting to the World Cup finals.

"His euphoria will hopefully rub off on everybody else to go and give a gigantic performance, as he has done for his country, at Bolton on Sunday.

"The opposite end of that is the unfortunate situation that Keith Andrews found himself in at the wrong end of the defeat, which wasn't deserved and was decided by a very controversial decision towards the end of the game.

"It is difficult to get over, but one he must get over and get on with playing for Blackburn Rovers.

"He needs to use it as a positive and try and get it out of his system as quickly as possible.

"I've every sympathy for him and everybody concerned with the Ireland team. Unfortunately they were on the wrong end of something that they shouldn't have been on."