Roberts praises Blackburn colleagues for coping without boss Allardyce

Blackburn striker Jason Roberts has praised the attitude of his team-mates in making a "seamless" adjustment to life without Sam Allardyce.

Rovers assistant manager Neil McDonald took over first-team affairs at the weekend after tests revealed Allardyce - who has complained of chest pains in recent weeks - requires an angioplasty, a procedure which involves widening a narrowed coronary artery.

The players only discovered the news last Friday that Allardyce would miss the next three games, but after responding with a 2-0 victory at local rivals Bolton two days later, Roberts believes the squad has shown their professionalism.

"I think the biggest compliment we could pay was that it didn't affect our preparations too much - the other staff stepped in and it was seamless," Roberts said.

"We had a meeting on Friday and spoke about it and we knew what was going to happen on Saturday in terms of our game-plan and the fact that he (Allardyce) wasn't going to be there.

"It's always difficult when the manager is not there, but we have got some personalities in the dressing room. We knew how important it was and we pushed ourselves on.

"There were a few things (to think about) going into the game - obviously it was a local derby and also we hadn't had an away result for a while, so it was big for us.

"We were very happy with the result and I think we played quite well."