Djorkaeff's debut performance impressed everyone

THE manager and players alike were all of praise for new boy Youri Djorkaeff after an excellent start to his Rovers career.

The former French international made his debut in a Rovers shirt this afternoon and put in a highly impressive seventy minute performance.

Youri played just behind Paul Dickov in a 4-4-1-1 formation and had a hand in both Rovers goals.

He started the move that saw Paul Dickov cross for Barry Ferguson to score in the first half, and his pin-point pass set up Brett Emerton to fire home the second.

After the game, manager Mark Hughes couldn't be happier: "For a guy that hasn't played any kind of football this season,for him to come in and perform as he did is a credit to the guy and how he looks after himselfand the ability that he has.

"He has come in and made an impact and that is exactly what I wanted off him.

"In fact we got more than we could have hoped for."

Strike partner Paul Dickov was equally impressed with the one-time World Cup winner: "If anyone had seen Youri playing here today, they would have thought he'd been here since the start of the season.

"I think when you consider that he had only really trained with us on Thursday and Friday, he's played no football in the past four months, and to put in that sort of performance is fantastic.

"It just shows that Youri can only get better and that will only make the team get better.

"He is clever, if he sees you making a run nine times out of ten he'll pick you out."

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