BLACKBURN BOSS Jon Dahl Tomasson praised Rory Finneran after the 15-year-old became Blackburn’s youngest-ever player at the weekend.

The Ireland underage international was introduced in stoppage time during his side’s 5-2 FA Cup win over Cambridge.

Midfielder Finneran was born in Blackburn but has been capped by Ireland multiple times at underage level and is being tipped for a bright future in the game.

“We got the opportunity to give the first minutes to a very young boy, Finneran,” Tomasson told Blackburn’s website. “The academy have done good work. Congratulations to him and his family because they are also part of the journey.

“There is a great connection with the first team and the academy, it’s important everybody can see there is a pathway and an opportunity. [Rory] has very good quality on the ball, great vision. He is still only 15, very young, but it was a good moment to give him a nice experience and I think he will keep smiling for the next weeks.”

“You need to have the hunger to become better, that’s the attitude you need to be a top player,” Tomasson added. “He has a lot of potential. He can play with his left and right foot. He can see things quicker than a lot of people can, that’s a quality because it means that you are good at making decisions. The best players in the world make the best decisions and can make them quickly because the game goes extremely quickly.

“Still, of course, he needs to develop a lot but I know he has a good attitude.

“I wanted to give him the opportunity if the scoreline was right… It was a good opportunity to give Finneran the minutes.”

Tomasson also praised another individual who may soon be making his Ireland debut –the Championship’s top scorer Sammie Szmodics hit a hat-trick to take his overall tally to 19 goals from 27 appearances.

“The development of Sammie is great to see,” the Blackburn boss said. “He’s a team player, he’s a goalscorer. He’s very good in doing all the things we want, then of course scoring that amount of goals and also even getting assists.

“And still the good thing is, he can miss a chance and it doesn’t matter, he can go on. Great character and great to see him getting the ball with him at home.

“After Christmas last season, I think he’s been really good for Rovers and after the summer holiday, he’s been extremely good. He’s also added those goals.

“We always know he can score goals but he’s not used to playing a lot of games at this level first of all, he played with Peterborough but not a lot. The way he’s scoring goals, the confidence he’s playing with and the role he takes as one of the senior players is quite incredible.”

Additional reporting by Press Association