FA Cup 5th round replay: Blackburn Rovers 1 West Ham United 1 (West Ham win 5-4 on penalties) - Peter White's big match verdict

WHENEVER FA Cup fifth round time comes around, Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper Alan Fettis can be guaranteed to have nightmares - about penalties.

Called up on the day of the match to replace Tim Flowers the Northern Ireland international could not do a single thing about the five perfect West Ham penalties which whizzed past him in the drama of another cup shoot-out.

And to add to his misery, Fettis was suffering from a severe case of deja vu.

For, last season, he was sent on by Nottingham Forest after the dismissal of Mark Crossley in a fifth round tie at Saltergate - and was beaten by a Chesterfield penalty for the winner!

"Penalties, they are definitely my FA Cup nightmare," groaned the keeper who had so little to do during 120 minutes of action and the shoot-out that his only real task was to pick the ball out of the back of the net.

Mind you, Fettis wouldn't be on his own in struggling to get any sleep last night as Rovers' FA Cup hopes disintegrated in agonising fashion.

It is no way to win such a vital game and it certainly isn't a fitting manner to lose it.

Just ask Colin Hendry, on whose shoulders fell the burden of missing the crucial spot kick.

Or manager Roy Hodgson, who has suffered so much anguish from these artificial endings to last a lifetime - and on an even bigger stage too.

Fortunately, the shoulders of all three men are broad enough to bear the bitter disappointment.

It's difficult even to give Fettis a mark on a night when West Ham's only on-target effort was a superbly-taken goal and the visitors didn't win a single corner. But in the two matches he has played, he has looked a composed and more than competent deputy for Flowers.

As for Hendry, if anyone is big enough to bounce back from the responsibility of having missed the crucial spot kick, then it's him.

The manager, meanwhile, must feel he is cursed, having confessed only the day before the game to having lost the UEFA Cup final and an Italian Cup semi-final in similar fashion last season.

And you can add a Swedish Cup final before that.

Oh and there's the small matter of the Coca-Cola Cup tie at Chelsea earlier this season.

Rovers have gone out of the two major domestic knockouts without losing a tie - some record that.

They played well enough in both to progress but, for all the trauma at the tail end of last night's tie, it must be said that Rovers should have won it without resorting to the late lottery show when their number didn't come up.

Credit to West Ham whose game plan to frustrate and deny Rovers then try to snatch something on the break worked like a dream. Well, the first part did.

They defended in depth and it was tough to break them down.

Damien Duff looked the best bet throughout the night and so it eventually proved, thanks to Stuart Ripley's equalising header.

What a talent Duff possesses and it almost bore fruit with the first half's best attempt, a jinking run inside and a shot which clipped the outside of a post. Little wonder he was behind the extra-time equaliser which set up the drama, and then the disappointment.

Rovers have little to reproach themselves for, with the exception of not taking their chances, and West Ham keeper Craig Forrest, allied to some determined defending - not seen when West Ham were last at Ewood - had much to do with that.

The early momentum faded as the visitors were clearly happy to stay at 0-0 for as long as possible. In fact the game only really opened up in the early period of the second half.

That's when Rovers should have won it.

Forrest saved brilliantly from Kevin Gallacher's header. Chris Sutton somehow fired wide, with the keeper spreading himself, from a couple of yards and West Ham survived a couple of frantic scrambles.

Realising the need to do something about their attack, they replaced Eyal Berkovic - jeered at every touch - and he made a less than distinguished exit, clearly not very happy with his substitution.

Samassi Abou's introduction spelt more danger on the break but, by my reckoning, the night produced 19 Rovers corners, none for West Ham, who also failed to find an on-target effort throughout the first 90 minutes.

That summed up the pattern of the match.

There was one scare, when David Unsworth headed well wide in 68 minutes from their first serious threat. But extra time came as no surprise.

Hendry fired just over from a good chance, then had a header cleared off the line. Just when it seemed we would never see a goal, one came at the wrong end.

Abou crossed, John Hartson got in between two defenders, chested the ball down expertly and stabbed it past a helpless Fettis.

With seven minutes left, Rovers were shaking their heads in disbelief as skipper Tim Sherwood blasted the ball against the bar and over from a few yards out. But the drama had only just begun. Duff got away once again on the left, his cross was just too high for Sherwood but Ripley stormed in to head firmly home with five minutes remaining.

The final whistle sent everyone to the Blackburn End for penalties, an outcome which West Ham would probably have accepted at the start.

There were eight perfect spot kicks, then Hendry drove a poor one straight down the middle and Forrest stuck out a leg to block it.

Steve Lomas, an inspiration for West Ham, didn't look the gift horse in the mouth.

That is three major cup ties which have featured penalty shoot-outs for Rovers and they have lost every one, the other being in the quarter finals of the FA Cup at Sheffield United in 1993.

And it doesn't get any easier to take, especially when Rovers should have won all three of those games.

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