ITALIAN goal-ace Corrado Grabbi was upstaged on his Blackburn Rovers debut last night by a Ghanaian striker plucked from football's bargain basement.
Graeme Souness's new ?6.75 million capture from Ternana finally got his first taste of action as a second half substitute in what turned out to be a testing workout against the German part-timers.

But tiny hit-man Joseph Fameyeh (in pic -left) ultimately stole his thunder with two moments of second half magic which set the Schoneburg Stadion alight as Crailsheim roared back from the dead.
Goals from David Dunn and Martin Taylor had earlier put Rovers in command as they went in search of their second successive victory on this three-match tour.

But Fameyeh had other ideas, suddenly exploding into life with a deadly finish to claw the home side back into this keenly-fought contest.

Then, in the last 12 minutes he sent the 2,000-strong crowd into a frenzy when he stepped up to slam home an equaliser from the spot after being sent crashing to the ground following another typically devastating run.

That was the least the hosts deserved, in fairness, after pushing Rovers all the way in what turned out to be a competitive friendly.

And German coach Werner Rank was understandably ecstatic at the final whistle.

"I always knew we were a good team but I still didn't expect us to be good enough to get a result against an English Premier League side like Blackburn," said Rank.

"So, of course, I'm very proud of the way my team performed but now my problem is keeping their feet on the ground for all our important games in the league and cup.

"I wasn't disappointed with Blackburn and I thought, in fact, that they put in a very strong performance in the first half.

"But then they saw that just what a good player Joseph was and that's what ultimately changed the course of the game in the end."

In truth, this was never one for the purists as both sides struggled to come to terms with a tricky playing surface. But Rovers boss Souness will have taken far more from this encounter than the 12-0 annialation of Abtenau earlier in the week. The canny Scot made six changes to the side which started that game on Monday night with the likes of Alan Miller, Nathan Blake, and Damien Johnson all given their first taste of competitive action on this tour.

But all eyes were on new-boy Grabbi who came on as a second half replacement for Egil Ostenstad after shaking off the foot injury which kept him out in Austria.

As far as debuts go, the former Juventus man made a fairly low key start as few players managed to stamp their full authority on proceedings in what turned out to be an increasingly scrappy affair.

But, when given the right service, he did show the odd flash of genius, nearly conjuring up a late winner for the lively Marcus Bent, to suggest he could be a huge favourite with the fans once he settles in.
Generally speaking, though, Rovers never really hit top form despite making a dream start as they showed signs of fatigue following a punishing training schedule over the last 10 days.

David Dunn -- who looked the visitors' brightest player -- fired Rovers ahead with a peach of a strike in the fourth minute.
Ostenstad was the architect with a raking right-wing cross which found its way to Dunn on the edge of the box who expertly chested it down before looping a left-foot volley high into the top corner.
But the anticipated avalanche never followed.
Dunn, Jeff Kenna and Ostenstad all went close to a second as Rovers bossed proceedings in midfield.
But Crailsheim posed one or two problems themselves on the break as the dangerous Famehey fired an earlier warning with a rasping drive which whistled just over Alan Miller's crossbar.
Souness then shuffled his pack at half-time, making six changes in order to give as many players as possible a taste of the action. But Rovers seemed to lose some of their momentum as a result. They did add a second, however, on 51 minutes when a shot from Martin Taylor looped into the far corner after taking a wicked deflection.

Crailsheim weren't finished, though, and replied within sixty seconds when Fameyeh raced onto a hopeful ball over the top and out-paced Rovers' defence before sliding a neat finish under the advancing Miller. Fameyeh then burst through again only to see his cross-shot headed off the line by Taylor.
But he did fashion an equaliser on 77 minutes when he outfoxed the visitors' defence once more, this time forcing Kenna to drag him down in the box, before stepping up to tuck away the resulting penalty himself.

The men from Ewood did come close to snatching a winner in the dying seconds. Grabbi wriggled free on the right before whipping over a peach of a centre but Bent couldn't get any direction on his header and the chance went begging.
Statistics:
TSV CRAILSHEIM...2 Fameyeh (2, 1pen)
ROVERS...2 Dunn, Taylor

CRAILSHEIM: Klein, Bundschuh, Ampah, Malakauskas, Melicherik, Kosturkov, Schneidhofer, Hannemann, Bartoloma, Upstas, Fameyeh.