BLACKBURN Rovers will be at home to either Manchester United or neighbours Accrington Stanley in the quarter-finals of the Lancashire FA Senior Cup after beating a more experienced Preston North End team 1-0 at a sun-kissed Brockhall yesterday.

Rovers, whose starting line-up featured only two players with first-team experience, settled the first-round tie with a 25th-minute goal from Republic of Ireland U21s international Darragh Lenihan.

Lenihan, fresh back from international duty, put an emphatic finishing touch to a smartly worked short-corner routine involving John O’Sullivan and Connor Mahoney, who have each made one appearance for Gary Bowyer’s senior side.

Rovers, strong in defence and patient and probing in midfield, dominated the first half but a combination of wayward shooting and last-gasp defending prevented them from adding to their tally.

The second half was a more even affair yet it was the hosts, led by Eric Kinder, who went closest to scoring again when Hyuga Tanner – fit again like Mahoney – rattled the bar from 30 yards.

Preston’s best opportunity came in injury-time when the alert Jack Doyle hacked a goalbound header off the line.

Kinder, Rovers’ U21s boss, said: “I was really pleased with the way we went about our football in the first half. Our movement, our passing and our tempo was excellent.

“Second half we always knew we were going to tire a bit as we’ve got young players and they put so much into the first half.

“We needed that second goal but it never came and that’s why I was really pleased with the last 20 minutes when we had to show a different side to our game.

“We had to dig in and fight and block and chase runners and tackle them – we did that and got our rewards.”