YOUNGSTER Darragh Lenihan believes he can shine in Blackburn Rovers boss Paul Lambert’s new-look midfield diamond.

Lambert handed the 21-year-old his fourth start in the last five matches in last Saturday’s 1-1 draw at high-flying Middlesbrough.

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And Lenihan rewarded his manager with his best performance in a Rovers shirt since breaking into the first team at the back end of last season.

The Academy graduate set-up Jordi Gomez’s delightful debut goal and twice went close to scoring himself.

His position to the right of the diamond allowed Lenihan to get forward at every opportunity.

And while it was only his 10th appearance for the club the Republic of Ireland Under-21 skipper has revealed it is a position he has plenty experience of.

“That’s the position I played at home, just to the right of the diamond, and I scored a good few goals from that position,” said Lenihan, who signed for Rovers in 2011 from the famed Belvedere club in Dublin.

“It’s a good position to get into for shooting because nobody picks you up.

“Hopefully I can keep contributing to the team, keep working hard for the team, but the main thing is just getting results.”

Rovers looked to be heading for their first league victory since December 11 when Lenihan teed-up Spanish star Gomez to score.

And the Irishman said: “He just came into my vision. I laid the ball off to him and it was a great finish.

“So to go 1-0 up, it was just disappointing to concede a goal, but there were encouraging signs.”

In the main Lambert has operated a 4-4-2 formation since taking over the Rovers reins in November.

But the arrival of Gomez, who played at the tip of the diamond against Middlesbrough, and strikers Danny Graham and Tony Watt have given him more options.

And Lenihan said: “We’ve been working tirelessly on it (the new system). The manager made sure we had to be organised and he really wanted us to control the game, which I thought we did.

“You never know whether he keeps using it, only time will tell.”

The Riverside Stadium draw stretched Rovers’ unbeaten run in all competitions to four matches going into this Saturday’s visit of Middlesbrough’s title-rivals Hull City to Ewood Park.

Lenihan said: “Before the game you would have probably taken a draw coming away to Middlesbrough but I felt we were the better team and had a lot of chances.

“So as a group we were a little bit disappointed as we should have got the win.

“But we can take encouragement from the way we played and move on to the Hull game.

“We just need to get points on the board. We know Hull are going to be tough, tough opposition.

“To play the top two in the space of a week is a big ask but we’ll take encouragement from the way we played against Middlesbrough and we’ll all be confident going into the Hull game.

“Hopefully we can get a good result.”