PROUD Blackburn Rovers stand-in skipper Matt Kilgallon hailed his team-mates after their excellent FA Cup quarter-final 0-0 draw with Liverpool at Anfield yesterday.

The Reds came into the game having won nine of their previous 11 Premier League matches including a victory over defending champions Manchester City one week earlier.

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But they could find no way through a determined Rovers side who were expertly marshalled by Kilgallon and his centre-back partner Alex Baptiste.

“I feel great, as all the lads do,” said Kilgallon.

“It was a real team effort and we all worked hard for each other at a great stadium and against great players.

“We really put a shift in and we should be proud of ourselves.

“It was all about concentration today. You can’t take your foot off at any time against a team like Liverpool and if you give them a yard, the ball will be in the top corner.

“And if you do start thinking, ‘this is all right’, then you’ll be in trouble.

“There was lot of concentration shown by the lads today. They’ve done brilliantly.”

And, while Rovers had to defend for long periods of the last-eight tie, they went closest to winning it when Baptiste saw a header from a Craig Conway corner saved by Kilgallon’s former Sunderland team-mate Simon Mignolet.

“It was a big slap off his head – I heard it!” laughed Kilgallon.

“It was going right in the top corner. I was with Mignolet at Sunderland and I saw him makes those saves all the time.

“He’s an unbelievable keeper and he got his big hand across it.

“I wished it would have gone in because I thought Baps was outstanding.”

So to was Kilgallon.

He said: “I’m 31 now and I feel great.

“They say centre-halves come into their prime at this sort of age and (Rovers coach) Craig Short says the same to me. I feel really good.

“I played a lot of games for Leeds United and Sheffield United but then I didn’t play for two-and-a-half-years at Sunderland.

“I didn’t play enough football but I’m loving what I do now, I’m playing every week and as a centre-half that’s what you need to do, you need to play games.

“It’s hard to come in one game and then come out but now I’m playing you start seeing the ball earlier and reading things.

“I’m really enjoying it.”

Kilgallon is also enjoying leading Rovers in Grant Hanley’s continued absence from a leg injury.

He said: “I’m loving it.

“It’s a very proud thing to be doing. It’s a massive club Blackburn Rovers, there have been some great captains, so it’s a very proud moment for me.”