Blackburn 2 Burnley 1

It left the Burnley midfielder requiring treatment and Savage, despite his garrulous protestations, in receipt of a caution.

Pedersen and Lucas Neill both shot over the bar but Grant outdid them both with Burnley's first effort - a shot from 30 yards that passed nearly 30 yards over Brad Friedel's goal.

Blackburn's pressure finally told, albeit fortuitously. Brett Emerton had a volley blocked but the ball rebounded to Tugay Kerimoglu, whose return wrong-footed Jensen when it deflected off Micah Hyde.

Hyde, however, made amends as half-time approached with his side's first shot on target. Not that Friedel can have expected the former Watford midfielder to shoot. Accepting a throw-in near the touchline, Hyde turned and curled the shot over the keeper.

Savage had picked up a groin injury and did not appear for the second half but his replacement Garry Flitcroft gave Rovers added impetus. They enjoyed the majority of possession but struggled to capitalise on it. Aside from a header from the impressive New Zealand defender Ryan Nelsen that was superbly saved, Jensen was seldom inconvenienced.

That was until Pedersen, having seen his cross blocked by Frank Sinclair, thumped the rebound from a narrow angle off Jensen's hands and into the roof of the net.

It was harsh on Burnley and their supporters who, like Rovers, must have fancied their chances of reaching the semi-finals had they they prevailed last night. "We're gutted," said their manager Steve Cotterill. "It was a cruel blow and we're very disappointed we did not give the supporters the win they craved."

Morten Gamst Pedersen scored five minutes from time to settle this Lancashire derby in Blackburn Rovers' favour. Micah Hyde had struck a sensational equaliser after he had earlier deflected in Tugay's long-distance strike and the match was heading for extra-time when Pedersen hammered in the winner.

A capacity crowd had packed into Ewood Park to see the second meeting between these two clubs. Since both were founder members of the Football League, this famous old fixture can lay claim to be the oldest derby in English football.

The two formerly prosperous East Lancashire mill towns lie only eight miles apart and it was perhaps to gain some perspective from the parochial nature of the rivalry that Mark Hughes, the Blackburn manager, had taken his team away on a warm-weather break to Dubai after the initial fixture 10 days ago.

Burnley, by contrast had played twice since then, drawing at Derby County and losing away to another Lancashire club, Preston North End, at the weekend. A trip to the local swimming pool was as close as they had come to a holiday.

Unsurprisingly, it was Robbie Savage who earned the first booking of the night, within two minutes, for clattering into Tony Grant. The first half was an untidy affair with Burnley's five-man midfield ensuring that Tugay, Blackburn's playmaker, had few options whenever he was in possession.

Taking matters into his own hands, when he picked up the ball on the half hour 25-yards out, he elected to let fly instead. His shot took a decisive deflection off Hyde before settling into the back of the net.

Given the quality - or lack of it - in the game as a whole it seemed a fitting way for Rovers to go ahead but equally fittingly, considering his unfortunate part in the opening goal, it was Hyde's moment of brilliance that brought the scores level. Picking up possession on the right-hand edge of the penalty area from a Michael Duff throw-in, he allowed the ball to drop over his left shoulder before swivelling and volleying beyond Brad Friedel into the far corner.

As the snow began to fall more heavily, Blackburn began to get on top after half time. Ryan Nelsen, captaining the side in the absence of Andy Todd, drew a reaction save from Brian Jensen. And he should have done even better minutes later when he met a Garry Flitcroft corner, but could only head over the crossbar.

The match was much more evenly balanced in the second half as Jean-Louis Valois began to make an impact for Burnley on the left wing. It was one of his runs that led to Tony Grant letting fly from 20 yards but again Aaron Mokoena was in the way.

Bothroyd only lasted nine minutes before hobbling off and Steven Reid's arrival pushed Pedersen up front. With five minutes and extra-time apparently beckoning Pedersen made the breakthrough with a thunderous strike.

Frank Sinclair initially cut out the Norwegian's cross but Pedersen took advantage of a moment's hesitation by Mo Camara and crashed in a shot that beat Jensen for pace at his near-post.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Friedel; Neill, Mokoena, Nelsen, Johansson; Emerton, Savage (Flitcroft, 45), Tugay, Pedersen; Dickov, Gallagher (Bothroyd, 59; Reid, 68). Substitutes not used: Enckelman, Short.

Burnley (4-5-1) : Jensen; Duff, Sinclair, Cahill, Camara; Grant (Branch, 83), Oster, Hyde (Roche, 90), Whittingham, Valois; Moore. Substitutes not used: Coyne, Pilkington, Scott.

Referee: H Webb (Yorkshire)

Burnley frozen out by iceman Pederson
Daily Telegraph

Appropriately enough, the cold war between Burnley and Blackburn was settled in a snowstorm by a man born 250 miles inside the Arctic Circle. Morten Gamst Pedersen, whose thunderous strike into the roof of Brian Jensen's net finished this bitter rivalry, would have considered the conditions unremarkable, although his goal was anything but. It earned Blackburn an FA Cup quarter-final with Leicester, and Burnley, who had not won this fixture since 1979, more black despair.

The roar that greeted the finish was in contrast to the eerie stillness that had settled over the town before kick-off. The Burnley team bus, which conveniently for stone-throwers had the words 'Burnley Football Club' emblazoned on the side, inched its way into Ewood Park past the red-brick façade of the Fernhurst Hotel, where on a normal match evening supporters would be spilling out on to the pavement. Last night it was closed off behind wire fencing.

This was an evening where the streets of Blackburn were ablaze with blue police lights in a way they would not have been even in the days of the miners' strike. The Fox and Hounds was open but patrolled by four bouncers of the kind you would not wish toargue with. It was not the pub that looked as if it served claret and last night it was assuredly not serving Clarets.

It was an atmosphere that Robbie Savage could have been expected to exploit, although by getting himself booked with a hopelessly crude challenge on Tony Grant with the derby less than two minutes old, the midfielder should have massively reduced his own room for manoeuvre. Naturally enough it bothered Savage not at all, although having picked up an injury he did not make it into the second half. His free-kicks had troubled Burnley's back-four, when,in the 33rd minute, another was half cleared.

Brett Emerton's shot was blocked and so in a way was Tugay's second attempt that took an evil deflection from Micah Hyde's body. Jensen might have saved the original shot but once it changed direction he had not a prayer. Three-quarters of Ewood exploded; they had been comfortably the better side and they knew it.

The gloating lasted fewer than a dozen minutes. Burnley's inventive manager, Steve Cotterill, had adopted his usual formation of employing a lone striker, a tactic that depended on midfielders coming up fast in support of Ian Moore. Generally, bar some forays down the right from John Oster, they did not.

At Sunderland, Oster was thought to have the technique but not the heart for these type of contests but as the snow pelted down a young man who managed to be fired by two clubs in a single season, displayed the vision and invention his side craved.Their equaliser arrived from nowhere.

Hyde took a ball on the right edge of the box, allowed it to bounce once, and then crashed it over Brad Friedel's grasp into the top corner of the net. It was Burnley's first goal at Ewood for 26 years and Hyde's first since making his debut on the opening day of the season. It was worth the wait. Tugay's goal had been shown in loving detail on Ewood's video screen, although Hyde's, curiously, was not replayed.

Blackburn suffered partly because refereeing decisions did not fall for them - their manager, Mark Hughes, appeared convinced that Paul Gallagher's overhead kick had been handled by a Burnley defender. Sometimes the ball fell to the wrong man. Ryan Nelsen's header from fewer than six yards was that of a natural centre- back. At that stage, Hughes felt enough was enough and introduced a genuine striker in the gangling shape of Jay Bothroyd, who had the humiliating experience of being taken off himself less than 20 minutes later.

The finishing was left to Pedersen. For the losers, the numbness of defeat was capped by the realisation that revenge might be a long time in coming. The FA Cup fifth round represented only the third time these clubs had been thrown together since April 1983 when Burnley fans had greeted defeat by taking lump-hammers to Ewood Park's terracing.

Since then, the Glasgow Old Firm would have faced each other more than 90 times, and the red and blue halves of Merseyside clashed on almost 50 occasions. Four matches in 22 years are too few for this kind of hate, especially when, like Burnley you have not won any.

Match details

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Friedel; Neill, Nelsen, Mokoena, Johansson; Emerton, Tugay, Savage (Flitcroft h-t), Pedersen; Gallagher (Bothroyd 60, Reid 79), Dickov.
Subs: Enckelman (g), Short.
Booked: Savage.
Burnley (4-5-1): Jensen; Duff, Cahill, Sinclair, Camara; Oster, Hyde, Whittingham, Grant (Branch 79), Valois; Moore.
Subs: Coyne (g), Roche, Pilkington, Scott.
Booked: Cahill, Grant.
Referee: H.Webb (Yorkshire).

PEDER POWER FIRES ROVERS