Silver lining.

Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allerdyce praised his players despite going down to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea.

Rovers were outplayed and outclassed during Guus Hiddink’s final game at Stamford Bridge, but Allerdyce was pleased with the performance.

“I think that today we hadn’t anything to play for but the lads went out and tried their best and I think that Chelsea’s team was the strongest they had available to play and they won the game,” he said.

“Our injury situation didn’t help, I though we were still in the game at half time but after we had to bring off Ryan [Nelson] and Gael [Givet] that it made life very difficult for us as we saw in the second half. But the first half I was pleased with apart from obviously giving the goal away.”

The former Bolton manager went on to express his delight that his side secured their Premier League status last week with a 2-0 win over Portsmouth.

“I was delighted that we had nothing on for today’s game. At any stage of the season playing at Stamford Bridge is never going to be easy with the quality of players they’ve got. I was looking fro a reasonable performance and I think I got that form the players, I think they gave everything they possibly could but it wasn’t enough against a very good Chelsea team.”

Chelsea vs Blackburn Rovers.

I'm at Stamford Bridge today covering Guus Hiddink's last game in charge of Chelsea in front of their home fans. No doubt parading round in their new kit, Hiddink's last game promises to be a celebration of the job he has done since his arrival in February.

11 Premier League games later with only one defeat, a minute away from a Champions League final, Chelsea fans have a lot to thank the Dutchman for and he'll be a huge loss next season when he returns to the Russia national job. There appears to be only one man big enough to fill his shoes...The Special One...however unlikely that may be.