Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean believes that injuries were to blame for his side's 2-1 FA Cup third round defeat at Newcastle United.

David Goodwillie had put Rovers ahead, but Jonas Gutierrez's injury-time winner knocked Kean's side out of the competition after Hatem Ben Arfa had equalised for the hosts.

"First and foremost we wanted to get through to the next round and we are really disappointed we are not in the next round," said Kean.

"We have got a few players coming back from injury, we have got guys at the training ground. If they came today we really would have been playing them injured so we thought we had to rotate a bit.

"We have found ourselves in a difficult position with the amount of defenders we had missing."

Blackburn host Fulham in the Premier League next Saturday.

Written by
Jack Prescott