Pedersen keeping his set-piece secret

Talk about crossing-over codes. On the day kicker supreme Wilkinson led England to rugby victory over Scotland, Mark Hughes let slip that Morten Gamst Pedersen is a willing Jonny-come-lately at set-pieces.

Blackburn's manager savoured a marvellous injury-time winner from the Norwegian's trusty left boot and declared Pedersen every bit as good at bending it as Beckham or his old team-mate Ryan Giggs.

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But he also revealed that the Rovers coaching staff have introduced their free-kick specialist to neuro-linguistic programming to help concentrate his mind on delivering showstoppers like Saturday's. Wilkinson, whose most famous moment won England the World Cup, imagines a little man sitting on the crossbar as he shapes to kick. Pedersen is not saying what he visualises in the top corner of the goal. Hughes said: "We've worked a little bit on his mental imagery. He tries to do certain things that help him, and more often than not he scores. What does he see? You'll have to ask him if he'll tell you the secret."

Nothing doing, said a smiling Pedersen, adding: "The manager told me to keep it a secret." Catch 22, Ewood Park style. But whatever it was that sucked the ball into Paddy Kenny's net, it worked a treat.

"They talk about David Beckham's free-kicks, but he's every bit as good," said David Dunn, back at Blackburn to a huge welcome after three lost years and partial to taking the odd free-kick himself.

"I can't see anyone else getting them off Morten at the minute. That was a terrific free-kick. He's fantastic at that. It's such a difficult skill to hit it with that kind of pace and get it over the wall and down again."

Pedersen, who scores with his left and right, came up with a rarer headed goal for Blackburn's opener and the free-kick that stunned luckless United was destined to be his eighth goal of the season the moment he struck it. United boss Neil Warnock was in no mood to appreciate Pedersen's qualities, not least because he insisted the free-kick was harshly awarded by referee Andre Marriner, who also booked three of his players. Marriner also recorded his first Premiership sending-off — although it was Rovers left-back Stephen Warnock, for two run-of-the-mill yellows, rather than the sometimes excitable United manager Neil.

Jon Stead marked his return to Ewood Park with a coolly-taken 25th-minute equaliser. But the striker refused to perform more than a perfunctory celebration. He said: "I didn't feel it would be right to go mad. I had a great relationship with the Blackburn fans when I was here and I didn't want to jeopardise that."