SAM Allardyce was full of praise for his Rovers side after they came so close to realising their Wembley dream at Villa Park on Wednesday evening.

Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, the Ewood Park club had been written off by all and sundry, but a change of formation brought about a change of fortune as Rovers raced into a two-goal lead to leave the home side stunned.

With the two sides having played each other three times already this campaign, Allardyce, whilst selecting a familiar looking side, opted to change the system, with Martin Olsson and David Dunn in wide positions supporting Niko Kalinić up front and Morten Gamst Pedersen joining Brett Emerton and Steven Nzonzi in the centre.

"We thought we needed to play the element of surprise," admitted Sam. "One was the way we were going to play and two was the fact who was going to play in which position, and they would come out and see that we weren't playing the same way as we normally play.

"We've played them so much in recent weeks of course, so perhaps they expected us to go 4-4-1-1 like we've always done, but this time we went 4-3-3 and the quality of our play was very very good.

"We got two very good goals and it is such a great shame that Niko's two goals haven't got us where we wanted to get, a Wembley final.

"They mean nothing to us now, but they'll certainly mean a lot to him, putting them in the back of the net and getting on a roll and starting to look like he can score more and more goals and Martin Olsson is emerging as a player.

"I feel really sorry for the players."