Brave hearts

COLIN Hendry used to be known as 'Braveheart' during his days at Ewood after his passion and commitment won the respect of the Blackburn End.

But even he had to take his hat off to Graeme Souness's class of 2001 after Rovers dug deep to grind out a replay in the face of adversity in this frantic fifth round FA Cup clash at The Reebok.

Barely nine minutes had elapsed when Souness was forced to tear-up his game plan after substitute referee David Pugh sensationally sent off Garry Flitcroft.

But Rovers recovered from that stunning setback to more than match their First Division promotion rivals ahead of the real showdown between these two sides on Friday.

Since Souness took up his post at Ewood last March, the fiery Scot has injected a steel and spirit into this squad which has been largely missing since Hendry's departure.

And once again it was those qualities which pulled Rovers through here after Flitcroft's dismissal had left them facing a mountain to climb against in-form Wanderers.

"I know we've got character in our team so the players didn't surprise me at all here," said Souness.

"We showed that against Norwich and we've shown it when we've been up against it at other places.

"If we didn't have that then some of the players wouldn't be out there, they'd be on the transfer list or out of the door.

"So we have players full of character and, even more importantly, young players full of character.

"They'll have learnt from this and they'll be even bigger characters as we go forward."

When referee Mark Halsey got injured in the warm-up, fourth official Pugh was forced to take charge for the first of this two-part thriller.

But even he could not have anticipated the events which followed as the game exploded into life in the opening 10 minutes.

Flitcroft -- Bolton-born and a former Wanderers fan -- was clearly pumped up for the occasion and his overenthusiasm got the better of him twice in the space of six minutes.

Pugh was right to show him a yellow card for a reckless challenge on Gareth Farrelly after three minutes.

But he then over-reacted six minutes later when he harshly reached for his cards again after the 27-year-old caught Kevin Nolan on the halfway line.

There was no doubt the second incident was a foul but he failed to apply commonsense in the heat of a Lancashire derby.

However, Rovers failed to let that hammer blow shatter their spirit.

And, but for some sharper finishing from Matt Jansen, they could have finished the job off at the first time of asking.

With Eyal Berkovic supplying the ammunition from midfield, Rovers repeatedly sliced open the Wanderers defence in the opening 20 minutes.

American keeper Jurgen Sommer came to the rescue on three separate occasions, denying Jansen with point-blank stops, before sustaining a thigh injury which severly restricted his movement after that.

But Wanderers always looked dangerous on the break as Farrelly drew a scorching save from Brad Friedel and Alan Mahon headed another Farrelly effort off the line.

The pressure began to build, resulting in Berkovic being sacrificed for Damien Duff in midfield.

And the switch paid off within nine minutes when Duff was sent tumbling by John O'Kane on the edge of the box and David Dunn stepped up to curl home a free kick past Sommer.

Sommer then clawed away another effort from Jansen as Rovers finished the half on a high.

But, as the extra man began to tell after the break, it was Wanderers who turned up the heat.

Riccardo Gardner dragged a close range effort just wide of the post at full stretch after a clever flick from Michael Ricketts.

Eventually, the Rovers defence cracked and they shipped an equaliser on 62 minutes.

Simon Charlton fired goalwards after a long throw had caused chaos in the area and, as the ball struck Henning Berg, Ricketts pounced to stab home his 19th of the season.

In an action-packed finale, Wanderers carved out two golden chances to sneak a winner. First, Nicky Summerbee headed over after a left-wing centre from Gardner then Friedel saved a pointblank effort from substitute Paul Wheatcroft.

But Rovers held on to set-up a replay -- an extra game which both managers could do without.