MANAGER Sam Allardyce has given a thumbs up to the Sydney Festival of Football.

Rovers, along with AEK Athens, Rangers and host club Sydney FC, were part of the inaugural competition down under with the Rovers boss delighted to take part and pleased with the level of competitiveness amongst the teams.

"In the first game the lads couldn't raise a leg because of the jetlag," admitted Allardyce.

"But I think that we've thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, the quality of the teams has been excellent which is one of the reasons that we came.

"I think that Sydney have stood up well to the teams that have come far and wide, exceptionally good sides in their own right in their own countries.

"And I think that the quality of the tournament and the organisation and obviously the sponsors and the hosts have been excellent for us.

"We've got a lot of good stuff out of this tournament in game terms, we were disappointed in the first two performances but I'm pleased with the last one."

Rovers end their pre-season campaign this weekend with away games against Hearts on Saturday and Celtic on Sunday.