SAM Allardyce was full of praise for his young side as they claimed their third double of the season in defeating Aston Villa 1-0 at Villa Park.

Until this Sunday afternoon, Rovers had only won in Lancashire in the Premier League, but when Junior Hoilett nodded home Martin Olsson's centre that all changed.

The win saw Rovers cement a top ten place, and reach the manager's target of fifty points.

"We've ended the season on a really big high and a double over Aston Villa," said Allardyce.

"Our third win away this season and against a Villa side that I think had only lost seven times. It is a massive win for us to finish on fifty points."

Allardyce was once again brave as he gave yet more young players their debuts in Amine Linganzi and defender Grant Hanley, who stole the show with a solid defensive display.

"You look at how young the side was today, Grant Hanley and Amine Linganzi making their debuts today. Then in addition there's Junior Hoilett and Martin Olsson, we've got a lot of promising young players and a lot of experienced players that are gelling exceptionally well together.

"And why we didn't do much attacking wise in the first half, we certainly changed it around in the second. We changed the system a little bit, we moved Junior up front with Jason to give him more support and we started to threatened Villa.

"And in the end what a fantastic goal, Martin Olsson and Junior Hoilett are big big pals and it was fitting that two of the younger end of our team provided and scored the goal to get us a very very satisfying 1-0 win.

"That makes it a fifty point season this year, it looked a long way off after ten games this season."