Sbragia irritated by Tottenham's pursuit of Jones

Sunderland 0 Blackburn Rovers

It would be stretching it to make much ado about this particular nothing-nothing – a goalless, soulless excuse of an FA Cup affair between two half-strength Premier League sides with eyes on midweek bread-and-butter matters. The highlights could be condensed into a sentence: Christopher Samba flashing a header narrowly wide and Pascal Chimbonda blocking a Morten Gamst Pedersen shot on the line – oh yes, and the sweet sound of that final whistle.

The most notable performance of the day came in the media room afterwards, when Ricky Sbragia was asked about Tottenham's latest attempts to tease Kenwyne Jones from the Stadium of Light, with newspaper reports of a swap deal involving Darren Bent and Harry Redknapp talking of a fresh bid after his side's defeat at Old Trafford. Sbragia might still be a novice in the managerial game but the former centre-half happens to be a man of admirable substance. "We're trying to build a team around Kenywne," he said.

"On many occasions we've said 'no' to Spurs but when they start putting things in the papers it's bad practice. They're trying to get into the player's head and maybe trying to work the agent a bit more to try to push the situation. The biggest concern for us is that the player's head doesn't get turned, but we spoke to Kenwyne on Friday and he's happy here.

"I think that what Spurs have been doing is completely wrong. Is there anything we can do about it? Well, he won't be going. There's no way."

If Tottenham thought the affable Sbragia might be a soft touch, they ought to have seen him on the ESPN channel the other week, putting the skids under Arsenal at an icy Bootham Crescent in York City's famous fourth round win of 1985 – back in the days before the magic of the FA Cup was reduced to a disappearing trick.

Sunderland (4-4-2): Fulop; Bardsley (McCartney 64), Chimbonda, Ferdinand, Collins; Edwards, Leadbitter, Reid, Malbranque; Healy (Jones 67), Chopra. Substitutes not used: Colgan (gk), Cisse, Diuf, Murphy, Yorke.

Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Robinson; Simpson, Samba, Nelsen, Warnock (Givet 72); Pedersen, Grella, Mokoena, Olsson (Haworth 57); McCarthy, Santa Cruz (Villanueva 67). Substitutes not used: Bunn (gk), Emerton, Khizanishvili, Andrews.

Referee: L Probert (Wiltshire).

Booked: Blackburn: Olsson, Mokoena, Samba.

Man of the match: Pedersen.

Attendance: 22,634.