The striker hit the equaliser in a 2-1 win over Barnsley.

The strike took his tally for the season to six, his talents unperturbed by the £8m fee which took him to Ewood Park from Huddersfield Town. Rhodes scored for Scotland in a friendly with Australia but only featured from the bench in qualifiers with Serbia and Macedonia.

Craig Levein had taken in Blackburn's win and the 22-year-old was pleased to have scored again in front of the Scotland manager. "It's nice for the Scotland manager to come down and show interest, that's pleasing," said Rhodes.

"It's nice to score any goal and just to see the ball hit the net on Tuesday was really pleasing. I'm pleased that I managed to get on the scoresheet while he was watching. But I'm still young and there are still plenty of good players for him to choose from, so I'm not counting on anything just yet."

Stewart Kean, the Blackburn manager, is counting on his young forward's goal return. The Scot admits the money spent on bringing Rhodes to Ewood Park last month was an investment.

"If he can score 20 goals we'll make money," said Kean, whose side face Middlesbrough tonight. "We don't want to sell him. We want to get back into the Premier League and have him scoring goals [there]."