Southgate's shootout joy
14 Feb 2007 - 08:53:33
Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate hailed his spot-kick heroes as the Premiership side squeezed into the fifth round of the FA Cup by beating League One side Bristol City.
The fourth round replay at the Riverside Stadium had ended 2-2 after extra-time, but Boro won a thrilling shoot-out 5-4 to earn a last-16 clash against West Brom.
"We showed great technique and bottle to win it on penalties," said Southgate.
"Ironically in the last couple of weeks we've had a few shootouts in training and the standard has been very, very good actually, as it was tonight. That stood us in good stead.
"I said to Mark Schwarzer before the shootout, there's no-one I'd rather have in that position. He's done it for us many times in the past, including at Spurs in our Carling Cup run.
"There were some fantastic penalties, Mark Viduka's was excellent and I'm chuffed for Adam Johnson.
"He wanted to take one of the first five and he was a bit disappointed not to be allowed to take one. He showed great maturity.
"Great credit to Bristol City though, they kept plugging away and played some good football."