They have represented Burnley FC magnificently

Last updated : 02 March 2005 By Tony Scholes

Mark Hughes had said prior to the replay that he thought his side had too much for us but he certainly had to rethink those thoughts as the Clarets gave Blackburn a far tougher game than he could have imagined.

“We are delighted to go through,” said the relieved Hughes after the game. “It looked like it was going to extra time but Morten Pedersen has popped up again with a great strike and a great finish.

“There is no way we can say it was one of our better performances but we got through and we are grateful for that. Thankfully we nicked it at the end.”

He had words for the Clarets too and said, “Fair play to Burnley, they worked extremely hard, they have a system of play that doesn’t allow a great deal of space in the final third and all credit to them, they worked extremely hard.

“Certainly in the first half when they restricted us and we didn’t really work it out. In the second half we obviously had more of the play, more of the possession but without really creating any great chances.

“But fair play to Burnley, they put in a great effort tonight but we were able to go through thankfully.”

Clarets’ boss Steve Cotterill was both proud and disappointed as he saw his team go out with that late goal.

“I’m gutted really,” he said in the press conference immediately after the game. “I’m gutted for the lads in there and I’m gutted for our supporters.

“We couldn’t have given any more and the biggest disappointment is for the boys now and the effort they put in only to not get a result out of it. We are just desperately disappointed in that dressing room that we haven’t been able to give those supporters what they craved, which was a win.”

After the final whistle Steve and his staff went on to the pitch and they and the players had a discussion. “We didn’t want the players to walk off the pitch with their heads on the floor and that’s why we gathered them,” Steve said.

“It was so they could walk off with their heads held high because in my opinion, they have represented Burnley Football Club magnificently, not just tonight but all season.

“I really cannot speak highly enough of them. They have been magnificent, they really have, and this FA Cup run has brought us over a million pounds.”

He thought we could have gone on and won it in extra time had we gone that far and said, “We had another substitute up our sleeve that we could have changed our formation with so I thought if we could have seen it to extra time we maybe could have won it.”

Having spoken so highly of his players he also had words for the 7,000 Burnley fans who suffered heartache at the Darwen End at Ewood and also had a message for them for the Sunderland game.


“The fans were brilliant tonight as always and we are going to need them on Friday now big time, because we need them to be vocal for us and the lads will need all the help they can get.”