THE spelling may be slightly different, but having just completed the signing a forward by the name of Roque Santa Cruz, Blackburn Rovers proved to be in no mood to stretch the boxing analogy any further by succumbing to a sucker punch from vastly inferior opponents.

Santa Cruz, the Paraguay international, looked on from the Jack Walker stand after sealing his transfer from Bayern Munich for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £3.5m, on a four-year contract worth over £25,000-a-week.

His new teammates will be quick to convince him that the standard of opponent to visit Ewood Park this term will be vastly superior to the one he witnessed here in this Intertoto Cup final round second leg.

The arrival of the 25-year-old brings manager Mark Hughes’s complement of forwards at Ewood Park to seven, and the two who started this romp, Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts, clearly took the hint that competition for places this season will be stiff by both scoring during perhaps the easiest 90 minutes Blackburn will encounter this season.

Three goals inside seven minutes shortly after the interval ensured the visitors paid a heavy price for having to play for more than half the contest a man light following the sending off of Dejan Miloseski.

Morten Gamst Pedersen, the scorer of the opening goal in the first half, turned provider when his cut-back from the left flank three minutes after the interval was bundled home by Roberts, whose place is immediately under threat from 6ft 2in Santa Cruz, who expects to make his debut in Wednesday night’s friendly at Huddersfield Town.

McCarthy, last season’s top scorer, ensured he gave Hughes a fresh reminder of his undoubted talents in front of goal by volleying a spectacular third from a David Bentley cross shortly afterwards. Defender Christopher Samba then got in on the act after 55 minutes, applying a deft header to Pedersen’s in-swinging free kick to leave Vetra in disarray. Only a fine display from their goalkeeper Vaidas Zutautas prevented something akin to a cricket score.

The drastically reduced admission prices for youngsters reflected the fact this was a going-through-the-motions tie, a place in Friday’s draw for the Uefa Cup second qualifying round all but clinched courtesy of a comfortable two-goal victory in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, last week.

So regularly a side which bases success on a high-tempo approach, the less than breakneck pace with which Blackburn approached their task suggested they were intent on saving themselves for more testing opponents, their opening Premiership fixture at Middlesbrough now less than a fortnight away.

Having already succeeded in progressing further in this competition than any other team from their nation, Vetra were intent primarily on the avoidance of being on the wrong end of a humiliating scoreline, but they at least made a pretence of attempting to secure a victory, refusing to pack their midfield and defence and employing two forwards.

The ploy should have paid dividends midway through the first half, when the Blackburn defence was caught horribly square by a hopeful through-ball from Andrej Usaciov, only for Severino De Moura, afforded ample time and space to compose himself, to pull his shot wastefully across the face of goal.

The let-off clearly had a galvanising effect on Blackburn, who underlined their territorial dominance by breaking the deadlock on 25 minutes through Pedersen.

Roberts easily held off Nerijus Sasnauskas to lay the ball back for Bentley to swing in an inviting cross from the right, which Pedersen, despite the close attention of two defenders, headed past Zutautas on the turn from six yards.

Vetra’s already slim hopes of a fightback were left nonexistent five minutes from half-time when Miloseski, already on a yellow card after a petulant disagreement with McCarthy produced a caution, earned his second for leading with an elbow into an aerial challenge with Stephen Warnock which left the full-back requiring treatment.

Star man: Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn)

Teams. Blackburn:Friedel, Ooijer, Samba, Nelsen, Warnock, Bentley, Savage, Mokoena (Dunn 53min), Pedersen, Roberts (Rigters 58min), McCarthy (Derbyshire 58min)

FK Vetra:Zutautas, Botelho, Skerla, Usaciov, Sasnauskas, Juska, Bozinovski, Panka (Raliukonis 83min), Azizi (Karcemarskas 75min), De Moura, Miloseski

Scorers: Blackburn:Pedersen 25, Roberts 48, McCarthy 54, Samba 55

Referee:M Weiner (Germany)

Attendance:11,854