GRAEME Souness hailed his Worthington Cup heroes after last night's 2-0 victory over Wigan edged them a step closer to a second successive final appearance.

Andy Cole sparked dreams of a return to Cardiff by scoring the all-important goals to sink the Latics but Souness was quick to praise the battling qualities of his whole team as Rovers secured a place in the last four.

"You can see why Wigan have turned teams over from the Premier League in the past because they're a gritty team, the pitch is a great leveller, it's a very sticky playing surface which makes it very difficult to move the ball around, and we had to work very hard," said the Rovers boss.

"But, fortunately, we got the first goal because if we hadn't it could have been a very difficult game.

"At 1-0 it was still very much game-on and Wigan never gave up because they were still very much in the game.

"So we had to battle hard, we had to match them challenge for challenge, and hope that our better quality would show itself which is exactly how it panned out."

Wigan went into the tie looking to claim their fourth Premiership scalp after accounting for West Brom, Manchester City and Fulham during their march to the quarter finals.

However, two impressive finishes from Cole ensured Rovers avoided another giant-killing at the hands of the Second Division leaders.

But the night failed to pass without controversy after Souness was sent to the stands by referee Andy D'Urso in the 58th minute following a heated argument with the fourth official.

It was the second time this season that the Rovers boss had suffered such a fate which could prompt another touchline ban.

But Souness insists the officials over-reacted after he tried to dispute a linesman's decision.

"I didn't do anything," said the Rovers chief.

"I just went out to ask the linesman 'Are you sure you got that one right?' when Brad came out at the near post and caught the ball but he gave a corner.

"But I don't want to talk about that because it's not important."

In the meantime, Rovers will now put all thoughts of cup glory on the backburner as they switch their attentions to two massive games in the Premiership.

"It's great that we are through because last year our form went from strength to strength after we won it," said Souness.

"But the priority is and always will be the Premier League.

"We now have a small game against Manchester United on Sunday and then another one on Boxing Day against Liverpool so we can put this to bed and look forward to those games."

Meanwhile, Stig Bjornebye also had plenty of reasons to celebrate after making his first-team comeback following an eight month injury lay-off.

"It was a great feeling," said the Norwegian.

"The manager wanted to play his strongest side and to get a place in it was a brilliant boost for me because it's felt like one Hell of a long time out.

"I felt a bit rusty but I wasn't too worried about it because I probably needed a game like that to get going again because I'd only played in two reserve games."

Damien Duff should be fit to face Manchester United on Sunday after missing last night's game with an Achilles problem.