Hughes faces replay from hell

Cardiff City 1 Blackburn Rovers 1

No matter how vehemently Mark Hughes and Lennie Lawrence insisted they were perfectly satisfied with the draw, the look in their eyes gave it away that this was a replay that both could really do without. "Give me a result," their body language screamed, "any sort of bloody result."

Relegation fights tend to bring out the cynic in the manager and to hell with the magic of the Cup. It is the magic of survival they are concerned with and midweek tear-ups between players inspired by those wholly unprofitable virtues of romance and tradition are not at all conducive to the club's overriding cause.

Whether Hughes could have stomached being on the end of a "shock" on his return "home" to Wales is another matter, however. After his untimely departure as Wales manager in October, the renowned Cardiff faithful were expected to extend the welcoming hand of friendship in the metaphorical form of a short right hand to the bridge of his nose. Instead, they clapped him, a wonderful recognition of all that he did that Hughes acknowledged with the thumbs-up. Teary stuff, the Cup.

Not to say that every Welshman is so enamoured of Hughes, especially the Birmingham City chairman, David Sullivan, who laid into him with unbridled gusto yesterday concerning his handling of the Robbie Savage affair. "There's absolutely no question in my mind that Robbie Savage has been tapped up by Blackburn," he said. "It's outrageous, disgraceful and, quite frankly, despicable behaviour. We've stopped short of reporting them because we believe it serves no purpose. And what will the Premier League do? Slap them on the wrist and fine them £50,000?"

That would be the last of Hughes's concerns and he might even conclude that such a punishment would be worth it to obtain an engine as reliable as Savage's as he watched the brittle chassis of Barry Ferguson pull up once more in the first half here. "Barry's loss definitely affected us," admitted Hughes, as he reflected on his captain's groin strain.

Alan Lee's looping header over Brad Friedel had by then already negated Morten Gamst Pedersen's well-crafted early opener for the visitors and from that moment on the Championship strugglers belied a lowly League position, dictating possession and showing a degree of skill and talent in the process.

"We are happy to still be involved because if you look at some of the other results they have gone against Premiership sides," said Hughes. "The FA Cup is very important to us." Yes Mark, we believe you.

Goals: Pedersen (5) 0-1; Lee (35) 1-1.

Cardiff City (4-4-2): Warner; Weston, Gabbidon, Collins, Barker; Langley (Bullock, 45), Kavanagh, Inamoto, McAnuff; Lee (Thorne, 71), Jerome. Substitutes not used: Alexander (gk), Campbell, Vidmar.

Blackburn Rovers: Friedel; Neill, Johansson, Todd, Matteo; Thompson, Ferguson (Mokoena, 43), Flitcroft, Pedersen; Dickov (Johnson, 90), Stead (Gallagher, 60). Substitutes not used: Enckelman (gk), Reid.

Referee: S Dunn (Gloucestershire).

Bookings: Cardiff: Inamoto, Barker. Blackburn: Todd, Matteo, Neill.

Man of the match: McAnuff.

Attendance: 14,145.