BORO Squeeze Through

BORO 1 - 0 Sheffield United

BORO have squeezed through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup after narrowly edging to a 1-0 home win over a battling Sheffield United side, tonight.

BORO played host to the Championship side after the two sides played out a 0-0 draw at Bramall Lane on February 17th and were favourite amongst pundits to advance to the next round.

New boy Afonso Alves was handed his first start; in a game that was always going to be a battle, and so it proved. The two sides got off to a bright start and Alves looked more on form than in previous appearances, he could have had an early goal when Rochemback's corner found his fellow Brazilian, who could only nod wide of an empty goal.

An on fire Rochemback then fed in Downing who looked odds on to bag his 6th goal of the season, however he fired wide and the early exchanges began to peter out as each team launched aimless long balls down field.

The second half began even worse as neither team appeared to have a game plan other than win. Time after time BORO frustrated as they lashed hopeless balls from a partially inexperienced deffence, with Seb Hines and Jonathan Franks playing alongside Luke Young and Emanuel Pogatetz at the back.

Fabio Rochemback continued to impress as he scrapped for every ball and played a series of clever and accurate passes and showed that Gareth Southgate is right to hold his faith in him. Compatriot Afonso Alves also showed glimpses of what's to come, with some good movement and some good efforts, but the Brazilian forward was replaced by Tuncay in the 73rd minute to the sound of booing from the home crowd who wanted to see their new player grab a goal.

Tuncay immediately reminded the home fans of what he is capable of as he chased every ball and tried to link in well with Downing, on the left, getting into some good positions but just failing to finish.

James Beattie had United's best chance, close to the end of normal time as he threw himself at the ball from six yards out after a deflection, but the ball went into the side netting past the on-rushing Mark Schwarzer.

So the game went, inevitably, to extra time and descended into a free-for-all of scrappy desperation as both teams battled for a goal.

The first half of extra-time ended at 0-0 with BORO having had the better chances, one ntoable one from Tuncay as he picked up the ball inside the box before delicately lifting the ball over the defender before stabbing a shot towards goal, Paddy Kenny got down well to save for a corner.

BORO then grabbed the scrapiest of scrappy goals as Mido headed the ball on to Tuncay whose control bounced back off the defender into Mido's feet, he smashed the ball toward goal, but the shot was heavily deflected over Paddy Kenny as Chris Morgan turned goalkeeper to dive and divert the ball onto the post. The ball then came back to Kenny who, facing his own goal, attempted to scoop the ball away but could only palm into the back of his own net.

BORO then held on, by the skin of their teeth, to the lead until the end to secure their place in the quarter-finals, where they will host Cardiff City and former BORO striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

Attendance: 28, 108
BORO Blog BORO Man of the Match: Fabio Rochemback

Photos Courtesy of BBC Sport (news.bbc.co.uk/football) & MFC.co.uk (www.mfc.co.uk)