ROY Hodgson was proud of all his players last night but picked out central defenders Stephane Henchoz and Darren Peacock for special mention.

And he is particularly concerned that Peacock, playing against his old club, does not receive the credit he deserves after stepping into Colin Hendry's shoes.

"The two most consistent performers over the season have been Henchoz and Peacock," he said.

"If I was to choose our list of best players in the season so far, those two would be right up there with them.

"Yet I never hear a good word said about Peacock and I can't quite understand it.

"Is it just that people have made up their minds that 'Colin Hendry was our favourite, whoever replaces him is no good.'?

"Or are they actually watching him play?

"Last night, he played against Shearer and Dalglish, a fellow who can catch pigeons and the best centre forward in England and they had what -- two or three chances to score."

Late on, Henchoz twice denied Shearer but Hodgson understandably stressed: "That's in extra time. In 90 minutes against these two outstanding players and with Newcastle having a lot of possession, how many chances did we concede to those two?

"I remember going to Newcastle last year with other people and a much better side on paper, and being lucky to get a 1-1, because they had lots of chances and Sutton rescued us with a late strike."

Hodgson also revealed he felt Rovers might have blown their opportunity at the other end.

"When we had the penalty in the last minute of normal time and missed it, I honestly thought, well, that was the gilt-edged chance," he said.

"And again in the last minute of extra time we had a marvellous counter-attack but Kevin Davies missed a great chance there.

"I really thought we have had two fantastic chances to put this game beyond doubt."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.