Fenton set for Rovers reunion

Published: 03/01/2009

Graham Fenton has never been allowed to forget the damage he did to his native Newcastle when playing for Blackburn 13 years ago - but he could have a greater shock in store for Rovers.

Fenton effectively ended the Magpies' hopes of winning the Premier League title in 1996 when he struck twice in the last four minutes to condemn them to a 2-1 defeat at Ewood Park.

The much-travelled Geordie-born forward is now back in the north-east as assistant manager to Harry Dunn at Blue Square North strugglers Blyth Spartans and reminders of his role in the failure of Kevin Keegan's men to win the league are constant.

He is at least starting to redeem his reputation in the eyes of the locals, however, with Blyth this season embarking on another of their famous FA Cup runs.

Fenton has been number two to manager Harry Dunn as the club have belied poor league form to reach the third round of the world's oldest knockout competition.

On Monday night they host Blackburn at their 4,000-capacity Croft Park and romantics will pine to see one of the greatest-ever cup shocks, with the teams separated by 118 league places.

Blyth - beaten 3-0 at Gateshead last night - are second bottom of their division but with victories over league opposition in Shrewsbury and Bournemouth, energies have clearly been focused on the cup.

"When you start off each season the priority has to be the league," said 34-year-old Fenton, who spent 20 months with Blackburn after starting his career at Aston Villa.

"But if you have a good cup run your priorities do change a little bit and we have certainly done well financially out of the cup run.

"We have mollycoddled one or two to get them ready for the game.

"It is going to be great for the lads to play in front of a full house at Croft Park and play against, hopefully, one or two of their more renowned players.

"But, having said that, we don't want to be one of those teams that concentrates solely on the cup run and gets relegated."