Blackburn Rovers captain Ryan Nelsen has dedicated their opening day win at Everton to new manager Paul Ince.

"We had a lot of doubters and a lot of people that were saying some not so nice stuff about us the whole of pre-season and I hoped that has proved a lot of people wrong," the Kiwi told his club's website.

"We knew it was not true, we knew it was a load of rubbish and we wanted to prove that we are hopefully going to be right up there once again.

"I'm so happy for the boss, again he got some criticism that was so out of line and he didn't deserve it. He's been fantastic and to give this first win for him, all the boys are buzzing."