Grabbi steals the Blackburn limelight

Corrado Grabbi has not enjoyed many contended evenings since his £7million move to Blackburn but last night the Italian striker put his Premiership troubles behind him to help his club in to the fourth round of the FA Cup. Grabbi's form has been so poor in the wake of his arrival from Ternana in Italy that he has recently been training with the youth team at Ewood Park.

But Blackburn manager Graeme Souness chose to rest eight of his first team last night and Grabbi took his chance by scoring his team's first goal in the first half and setting up a meeting with Millwall on January 26.

In front of only 10,203 spectators, Blackburn were comfortably superior in the wake of Grabbi's goal and scored twice again, through David Dunn and defender Nils-Eric Johansson, before Bruce Dyer earned a consolation for Division One Barnsley late in the game. Souness certainly can not be accused of having no regard for English football's cup competitions. His current team - one of increasing promise - is one draw away from a place in the Worthington Cup Final while the Liverpool side he managed in 1992 won the FA Cup thanks to a 2-0 victory over Sunderland. Indeed, Souness has plenty of reason to do well in this competition.Ten years ago, he had only just recovered from heart surgery when the final came around and left much of the preparations to his assistant Ronnie Moran.

As such, he still - rather peculiarly - counts himself as a manager yet to win the famous old trophy.

This season of course the Scot is largely concerned with keeping Blackburn in the Premiership.The recent signing of Andy Cole should really see to that and Saturday's 4-1 defeat of a normally-resolute Charlton served as an indication of what Blackburn may be able to achieve this season now that they have bought somebody to score them the goals much of their approach play warrants. Last night, Cole was one of the absentees. Barnsley had proved stiff opposition during the 1-1 draw between the teams at Oakwell 11 days ago and were unbeaten in last nine games overseen by new manager Steve Parkin.

Almost from the start, however, the Yorkshire team were on the back foot and veteran Blackburn striker Mark Hughes brought the first save of the game from Kevin Miller with a well-placed shot in only the sixth minute.

Barnsley grew in confidence a little and Mike Sheron brought a plunging save from Alan Kelly with a well-struck volley towards the far corner in the 22nd minute.