Adebayor quickly off the mark for Man City

Aug 15, 2009 - 5:38 PM By WALTER SIMON STATS European Football Writer=

LONDON (SE) - Mark Hughes hailed Emmaneul Adebayor after the 25 million pounds new boy took just three minutes to score his first Manchester City goal in Saturday's 2-0 win at Blackburn.

Adebayor got his City career off to the perfect start before Stephen Ireland sealed the victory for the Premier League big spenders in the dying seconds.

Hughes said: "Emmanuel was outstanding today, led the line well, showed great composure and is technically excellent.

"He created a lot of problems today and all in all it was an excellent performance.

"It was an outstanding goal. It started well inside our own box and we quickly got up to the other end of the field and it was a great finish.

"We have had a lot of new players come into the club but I saw really good signs today.

"We showed good character and great resilience and these are qualities we will need for the season ahead."

A bumper crowd of over 29,000 packed into Ewood Park to see if City's summer spending spree would pay early dividends.

Hughes handed debuts to big-money signings Kolo Toure, Gareth Barry and Adebayor. The travelling fans did not have to wait long to cheer their first goal of the Eastlands revolution.

Richard Dunne broke up a Blackburn attack and his clearance broke to Shaun Wright-Phillips, who came bursting down the right wing before cleverly picking out Adebayor.

Former Arsenal star Adebayor hammered an unstoppable shot past Blackburn goalkeeper Paul Robinson from 18 yards.

Blackburn responded well to falling behind and Jason Roberts could have equalised for the hosts in the 18th minute when he latched onto Benni McCarthy's flick but scuffed his shot high into the stands.

City goalkeeper Shay Given produced a stunning save to palm away Chris Samba's towering header from El Hadji-Diouf's 27th minute corner.

Given was called into action again eight minutes before half time to keep out McCarthy's 12-yard effort after Roberts had left Wayne Bridge trailing in his wake down City's left.

Ex-Blackburn striker Craig Bellamy, surprisingly preferred to Carlos Tevez in City's starting line-up, stung the fingertips of Robinson with a powerful 25-yard shot seven minutes before half time.

City remained on the back foot at the start of the second half, with Given again the hero to turn Robert's close range header wide 13 minutes after the re-start.

Tevez finally got the chance to make his debut 22 minutes from time, replacing Robinho. But it was last season's Player of the Year Ireland who wrapped up the points in the final minute, catching Blackburn on the counter attack before beating Robinson with a calm finish.

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce felt his side deserved at least a draw for their efforts. He said: "I am not too discouraged by the performance but this is a results business so I am disappointed they did not turn a good performance into a positive result.

"At the very least we should have got a point out of this game."