Friday, December 02, 2005
Boro 2 Crystal Palace 1
We were promised a full strength squad to push on for a quarter final place and that's exactly what we got. Captain Gareth Southgate even made a speech before the game (apparently) to try and convince those not involved in the Cardiff final 2 seasons ago just how important this trophy is for the club. And since I was down in Middlesbrough for work I took the opportunity to get myself to the Riverside for my first live game in 3 years! It has been tough for the fans to meet the demands of so many games this year, what with Uefa cup and this, so just over 10 thousand turned out on a frosty night that turned out well in the end.A patchy first half ended 1-0 to the visitors after Queudrue's surreal own goal right in front of me in the North stand. We played well enough to at least be level despite some sloppy passing with Mark Viduka especially looking dangerous. Sure enough our problems were ironed out at half time resulting in a blistering strike from the in-form Aussie to bring us deservingly level on 50 minutes. 5 minutes later and we looked to be cruising after Vids set up Nemeth for one of the best goals I've seen him score, a short range touch from a narrow angle that even had a bit of curl on it! After that the result looked nailed on even if Palace didn't totally crumble.
Man Utd and Arsenal also cruised through to the last eight and would ideally be avoided in Saturday's draw, with Doncaster the only non premiership team left in. Personally I'd settle for a home tie against a Birmingham or a Blackburn. Not long to find out and with the commitment the team is showing in this competition we could again go all the way. £17 well spent!
My MOTM: Viduka, with no sign of taking it easy and a superb strike right up there with the season's best.
