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Benni's Blackburn stay on hold
25/02/2008 11:30 - (SA)
Blackburn - Blackburn manager Mark Hughes insists he feels under no pressure to sort out a contract extension for South African striker Benni McCarthy.
Rovers have opened talks with the striker, who scored two penalties in the 4-1 win over Bolton on Sunday, about extending his current deal, which expires in the summer of 2010.
McCarthy, 30, has endured a difficult campaign at Ewood Park. Having been linked with a move to Chelsea last summer, he has often been in the shadow of Roque Santa Cruz and has been dropped by Hughes on several occasions this season.
Despite the two spot-kicks against Bolton, McCarthy is still without a goal from open play since the end of October but Hughes has revealed Rovers are making headway on a new agreement to keep him at Blackburn.
Hughes said: "The talks are still ongoing. We spoke to his agent this week so hopefully something will be resolved. There isn't really a timescale on it."
The Rovers boss believes his squad are feeling the benefit of a training break in Florida after two weeks without a fixture.
Recuperate
He added: "We always go away if we can and we do it for the right reasons, not just to have a "jolly-up".
"We go there to get some sun on our back, recuperate and do some decent work and we went at the right time because if we'd stayed at home we would have been frozen out and wouldn't have been able to get any decent work done.
"You could see the energy in our play against Bolton and that's what we wanted."
Despite feeling positive about the way Blackburn are playing at the moment, Hughes acknowledges it will be more difficult than ever to qualify for Europe.
With Tottenham having won the Carling Cup, Rovers will have to finish in the top six to have a guaranteed place in the Uefa Cup, rather than having to go through the Intertoto process.
Hughes continued: "You look at the averages over the last five or six years that have taken you into Europe and we base our targets on hitting those totals but because of the way the league seems to be going, it will take more points this year.
Adamant
"The teams in the top half are beating the teams in the lower half this season and it's going to take more points to get into Europe than it has ever done but we'll keep going and we've got winnable games coming up as well."
Bolton manager Gary Megson is adamant his own team's European excursions are not a reason for poor results in the Premiership.
Megson's team reached the last 16 of the Uefa Cup thanks to a goalless draw in their second leg at Atletico Madrid last week, only to lose heavily at Ewood Park.
But Megson said: "It would be wrong to say it's purely and simply down to the fact that it's because we're in Europe because we've done it in the past when we've come back and got decent results but a lot of the players were running on empty at the end against Blackburn."
McCarthy took his tally for the season to 11 goals with penalties either side of Kevin Davies' equaliser but further goals from David Bentley and Morten Gamst Pedersen gave Rovers a comfortable victory on Sunday.
- AFP
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