Hughes anger as Bournemouth send Blackburn packing
<preform>Blackburn 3 Bournemouth 3 aet</br> <i>(Bournemouth win 7-6 on pens)</i></preform>
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Your support makes all the difference.The Bournemouth defender Eddie Howe settled a Carling Cup tie of epic proportions by driving in his side's eighth penalty past Peter Enckelman at almost 10.30pm.
The Bournemouth defender Eddie Howe settled a Carling Cup tie of epic proportions by driving in his side's eighth penalty past Peter Enckelman at almost 10.30pm.
The League One team had battled all the way with the 2002 winners of the trophy through normal time and extra time and they were the ones to keep their nerve in the shoot-out. After Derek Holmes had the Cherries' second spot-kick saved by Enckelman, a miss by Jon Stead for Blackburn evened up the contest.
Tugay fired high over Neil Moss's goal and then Howe hammered his effort into the net to clinch a memorable victory and a home tie with Cardiff.
Rovers were reeling in the final minutes of normal time, Karl Broadhurst's header putting Shaun O'Driscoll's brave South Coast side ahead.
Blackburn grabbed the lifeline with seconds left. As with Matt Jansen's goal in Mark Hughes's first Premiership game in charge on Saturday, a substitution proved crucial. Morten Pedersen showed the composure that had so often been missing earlier in the game when he took Brett Emerton's pass, steadied himself and fired past Moss.
Bournemouth were hit by a quick double when another Blackburn substitute, Paul Gallagher, took advantage of Jansen's flick to beat Moss again in the first minute of extra time.
But the drama was only just beginning with five minutes left. Alan Connell put the ball in from the left, Holmes headed it back into the area and John Spicer forced the ball in and take the game its full distance.
Hughes, a League Cup winner three times as a player including in 2002 with Blackburn, said: "Our overall performance was not good enough and we didn't deserve to get anything out of it. Bournemouth were well drilled, knew their jobs and stuck to their task. At times, they looked physically stronger than us and that's not acceptable."
He made nine changes from the team that beat Portsmouth on Saturday. It took just seven minutes for one of the retained players to put them in the lead. Javier De Pedro put Jansen clean through and, though Moss blocked his attempt, Emerton followed up for the tap-in.
Emerton also put a long-range effort into the side netting before Bournemouth equalised on 11 minutes. Wade Elliott's cross from the right got through as far as Gareth Connor, who lashed in a spectacular volley.
Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Enckelman; Neill, Amoruso, Johansson, Gresko (Gallagher, 88); Emerton, Tugay, Douglas, De Pedro (Pedersen, 56); Jansen, Bothroyd (Stead, 61). Substitutes not used: Friedel (gk), Matteo.
AFC Bournemouth (3-5-2): Moss; Maher, Howe, Broadhurst; Elliott, Spicer, Stock, O'Connor, Cummings; Rodrigues (Connell, 74), Hayter (Holmes, 74). Substitutes not used: Stewart, Coutts, Andrade.
Referee: M Atkinson (Yorkshire).
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