Blackburn edge out Boro

Blackburn squeeze through to the fourth round

Blackburn 2-1 Middlesbrough (aet)

Craig Short struck in the 112th minute at Ewood Park with a deft header to send Premiership rivals Middlesbrough out of the Worthington Cup.

Craig Hignett opened the scoring for the home side only for Szilard Nemeth to pull Middlesbrough level.

It was a long, drawn-out affair after we gave away a soft goal

Graeme Souness

Then after a flurry of activity at both ends, Short sewed things up in extra-time with his first goal of the season.

Middlesbrough were grateful to Gareth Southgate in the 10th minute - the defender cleared the ball off the line after Mahon had rattled in a free-kick from 20 yards.

And Boro were forced to make a change two minutes later when Colin Cooper limped off and was replaced by Jason Gavin.

Blackburn opened the scoring after 30 minutes through Hignett, who was making a rare start.

Garry Flitcroft delivered a good ball into the area and Hignett got away from his marker to power a header into the roof of the net.

I'm very disappointed with the result but pleased with the performance

Steve McLaren

Middlesbrough drew level in the 39th minute when Nemeth again surged forward.

His shot seemed to be hit more in hope than anything else but it deceived Filan and bobbled into the net.

Blackburn manager Graeme Souness decided to shake things up on the hour, bringing on Italian Corrado Grabbi for Hughes.

The visitors had an amazing escape two minutes from time when Crossley blocked two shots in quick succession from Jansen and Johnson.

Then Grabbi saw his effort cleared off the line by Gavin and the match went into extra time.

And Blackburn grabbed the vital goal deep into added time when Short steered the ball in at the near post.

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Blackburn: Filan, Curtis, Short, Bjornebye, Johansson, Flitcroft, Dunn, Mahon, Johnson, Hignett, Hughes. Subs: Tugay, Jansen, McAteer, Grabbi, Kelly.

Middlesbrough: Crossley, Murphy, Southgate, Ehiogu, Cooper, Wilson, Greening, Ince, Stockdale, Boksic, Nemeth. Subs: Mustoe, Marinelli, Gavin, Johnston, Russell.

Referee: A Wiley