Kean attempts to draw positives

Kean attempts to draw positives

Published Oct. 30, 2011 3:16 p.m. ET

Rovers were moments away from securing a first away victory of the season at Carrow Road, where a stoppage-time penalty from substitute Grant Holt earned the battling Canaries a share of the spoils with a 3-3 draw following a somewhat harsh handball given against Steven Nzonzi. However, Kean - whose side had beaten Newcastle in midweek to reach the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup - insists all is far from lost as his squad will regroup for next weekend's visit of a wounded Chelsea. "We have created a lot of opportunities to go on and score more goals, so we will keep going and take the positives," he said. "We deserved all three points against Norwich, after we had been the first team to beat Newcastle in midweek, and against Tottenham we also played very well, so the performances have been good." Kean added: "I don't think anybody can give anything other than praise for the way the lads are playing for each other. "We are a tight group, we will play to the end of each match - and we will go again when we play Chelsea." Despite trying to look on the bright side, Kean will know yesterday was a missed opportunity, as with 20 minutes to go Blackburn had put themselves in command. After Norwich had failed to test Rovers keeper Paul Robinson other than with a 20-yard effort from David Fox, Canada-born youngster Junior Hoilett fired the visitors into the lead on the stroke of half-time when he cut inside from the left and smashed home from the edge of the box. The Canaries, who had won great praise for last weekend's 1-1 draw at Liverpool, were level when Wales striker Steve Morison stroked in a sublime 22-yard effort. However, when Ayegbeni Yakubu powered Rovers back in front on 64 minutes and captain Christopher Samba then swiftly headed in a third after a free-kick from the left by Morten Gamst Pedersen swept through the Norwich six-yard box, there looked only one winner. The home side, though, were handed a somewhat fortunate lifeline with eight minutes left when Bradley Johnson's shot deflected up over Robinson off full-back Jason Lowe. Rovers seemed to have done enough to hold on for victory when, in stoppage time, the ball dropped onto Nzonzi's arm at the far post, and referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot, from where Holt made no mistake. "It would be worse if we had not played well or not created chances and got battered - but it has not been like that, it never has been at all," Kean said. "What we need to do is keep working at it, make sure our defensive shape is good because offensively we always look like scoring." The Rovers boss, though, has no intentions of looking for results any way they come. "I don't think that when you have got guys like Mauro Formica, Ruben Rochina and Junior Hoilett, then it is going to all be about tackles and scrapping," Kean said. "It is going to be about trying to get the ball, play in between players, to get it wide and a two-versus-one situation against the full-back - that is the way we play and we keep going forwards." Kean added: "Sometimes with a young team just near the end of a game we might need to see it out a bit better - I was screaming to get it into the corners to try to get a free-kick or a throw-in to run the clock down. "Maybe that is something we might have to look at when we do go ahead. "We need guys like David Dunn, Scott Dann, Ryan Nelsen and Michel Salgado, who have played the games, to help take the sting out of things near the end."

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