Blackburn Rovers 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1:Worthingtons have seldom been more appreciated than one enjoyed here yesterday at the Rovers' return. Making their first appearance in a major cup final for 74 years, Blackburn found the right balance of skill and resilience to beat a more strongly fancied but ultimately disappointing Tottenham side.
Spurs thought they could turn the match around once Christian Ziege had brought the scores level within eight minutes of Matt Jansen giving Blackburn the lead. Instead, Graeme Souness's team, inspired by the outstanding goalkeeping of Brad Friedel, held the edge in a close contest and won it with a goal from Andy Cole 21 minutes from the end.
Tottenham will always believe they should have had a penalty in the 88th minute when Nils-Eric Johansson appeared to bring down Teddy Sheringham. But Graham Poll decided that Sheringham's momentum had carried him over the Swede's lunge and none was given. If that was Blackburn's lucky moment, they had surely earned it.
The Ewood Park side's celebrations will be fleeting. This has still been a bad weekend for Rovers in the Premiership, where the results of others have left them four points away from safety.
On yesterday's evidence Rovers looked too good to go down. Surely the levels of passing that steadily unravelled Spurs' defence, the tenacity of David Dunn and the 38-year-old Mark Hughes, which eroded the influence of Darren Anderton and Gustavo Poyet, and above all the goalkeeping of Friedel did not belong to a team facing relegation.
Souness clearly wanted his wings to exploit the space behind Spurs' wing-backs, Christian Ziege and Mauricio Taricco, and this they did throughout. While Damien Duff enjoyed some success on the left, the principal threat stemmed from Keith Gillespie on the right.
Blackburn looked the more likely winners once they were able to deny Tottenham a platform in midfield, and here Hughes was superb, inflicting several juddering challenges on Anderton and consistently interrupting Spurs' flow.
Yet none of this would have won Blackburn their first major final - as opposed to the Premier League triumph of 1995 - since an FA Cup success in 1928 had Friedel not kept goal in the spirit of the Alamo. From the moment in the 20th minute, when he dived at the feet of Les Ferdinand to deny the striker a goal after Poyet's cleverly angled pass had sent him clear, to his instinctive save from Ferdinand's point-blank header in the 88th, the American was Rovers' talisman.
Spurs had achieved more by way of scoring chances when they found themselves behind after 24 minutes.
Ledley King's indifferent header out of defence was nodded straight back by Jansen. Gillespie, reacting quickly, tried a shot which would have gone nowhere had it not hit the advancing Jansen and then fallen at a happy angle for the striker to drive in a shot under Neil Sullivan's body.
Tottenham drew level in the 33rd minute with the best-worked goal of the match. Poyet found Ferdinand on the right and the striker cut inside to prod the ball through Johansson's legs, setting up Ziege for a simple shot at the far post.
When the winner came, however, King was again an unwitting assistant, this time dealing far too casually with a long ball from Berg and allowing Jansen to get the touch which knocked it square for Cole hook a shot past Sullivan.
Now he needs to repeat the process regularly for Blackburn in the Premiership.
- Guardian Service
BLACKBURN: Friedel, Taylor, Berg, Johansson, Bjornebye, Gillespie (Hignett 77), Dunn, Hughes, Duff, Jansen (Yordi 74), Cole. Subs Not Used: Miller, Curtis, Mahon. Goals: Jansen 25, Cole 69.
TOTTENHAM: Sullivan, Perry, King, Thatcher, Taricco (Davies 79), Anderton, Sherwood, Poyet (Iversen 84), Ziege, Sheringham, Ferdinand. Subs Not Used: Keller, Rebrov, Gardner. Booked: Sherwood, Taricco, Ziege. Goals: Ziege 33.
Referee: G Poll (Tring).
