BORO COMPLETE QUARTER FINAL LINEUP

 

 

Last time round, Middlesborough faced West Brom in the FA Cup 5th round. The tie was originally at the Riverside but a 2-2 draw sent things to a replay at The Hawthorns which finished 2-2 eveven after extra time. Boro won on penalties. Sheffield United hadn't gotten this far since 04/05 when Arsenal drew 1-1 with them at Highbury which took the tie to a replay at Brammal Lane. That led to a 0-0 draw after extra time and the Blades losing on penalties. In 03/04 they went one better though, beating Colchester 1-0 at Bramall Lane!

So this season they faced each other in the FA Cup fifth round for what would have been an all-Premiership tie last season. The Blades now being a Championship team didn't stop them from holding Boro to 0-0 at Bramall Lane though! So the two sides met in the only replay of the round at the Riverside. The winner got to host Cardiff in the quarter finals and while in theory in looked straightforward for Boro, there was still 90 minutes to play.

The match wasn't all that spectacular to start with neither side hitting the ground running but after the opening stages it was predictably Boro that got the bulk of the attacking chances. However that was when the underdog's strategy started to become obvious. Hold the Premiership side for 90 minutes and hope to catch a break. Well in terms of keeping a clean sheet it worked, it was left to the home side to provide the class, and Alfonso Alves considered himself unlucky not to have given Gareth Southgate's crew the lead before half time!

Well like in the first half the opening few minutes were even but once again it was Boro that was left to do all the attacking. The Blades goal got hammered with the Championship side doing little to relieve the pressure. In theory Gareth Southgate's crew should have walked away from this match, the gap in class was so big but grudging credit to the Blades defence, they held out The underdogs did have the occasional attack with James Beattie coming close late on but the match wound up going to extra time.

Were the Blades going to liven their game up in extra time? No they were not. Despite having some decent players(I didn't know Gary Speed was still playing) Kevin Blackwell clearly had no intention of seriously using them. Instead it was up to Boro to prevent a penalty shootout and they couldn't find any holes in the Blades set up. The commentators said that it was "15 minutes to penalties". Good news for Blades fans but the rest of us were hoping for a miracle.

Well in those last 15 minutes it was all Boro! They had some fresh legs on but that didn't fully make up for the knackered legs of most of the team, as at least one non-response to a cross proved. And so penalties looked to be an inevitability...untill an absolute fluke occured in the 114th minute. Mido fired in a shot, it went off both post and bar before Blades goalie Paddy Kenny tried to grab it only for the up-to-now miracle worker to put it in his own net! The Blades had one serious chance to equalise before the final whistle but it was the turn of the Boro defence to be the roadblock and they went on to become only the fourth Premiership side in the quarter finals this season!

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Motherwell at Pittodrie in the SPL. The Dons looked to finally react to their recent poor performances and initially it was the opposition who had the off night, Diamond giving the Reds the lead. However any run of form as bad as the Pittodrie crew have had is going to hurt you mentally and that's what Motherwell took advanage of late on, Darren Smith grabbing an equaliser for the visitors. At least Jimmy Calderwood can say that his side didn't lose this match!

Elsewhere, Hearts faced Rangers at Tynecastle. Unfortunately for Hearts, the Gers brought their A-game to Edinburgh. Jean-Claude Darcheville struck twice before half time to put Hearts against the wall. And then Nacho Novo did likewise to kill off what was left of the game and the Blues grabbed another three points. That's good news for the Dons, it allows them to move back up to 7th in the SPL, still two points behind Falrik(who lost 2-0 to Hibs at the Falkirk stadium) and the top half of the table but eighteen points ahead of Gretna(despite them beating Kilmarnock 4-2 at Fir Park) and relegation.

And so back to United action.

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