Levein ‘sickened’ by Blackburn’s penalty winner

Blackburn Roves 1 Leicester City 1

With just nine minutes remaining of City’s sixth-round clash against Premiership Blackburn at Ewood Park, defender Darren Kenton appeared to bring down Morten Gamst Pedersen inside the area.

Referee Neale Barry waited a few moments before awarding the spot-kick as he first glanced across towards his linesman, who awarded the contentious penalty.

It allowed former Leicester striker Paul Dickov to fire home what proved to be the winner in a 1-0 victory and so send Rovers through to tomorrow’s semi-final draw.

But Levein, whose Coca-Cola Championship side deserved a replay from what was a dour tie, said: “I am sick. If we had lost to a team who had outplayed us and had scored three or four goals then you would say to yourself that you weren’t good enough.

“But the frustrating thing is we were and it is debatable whether Blackburn did enough to win the match. I don’t think they did, but they are through, even though we more than matched them.

“We are disappointed that not just today, but all the hard work in getting to this stage, has been undone by one decision and that’s the sickening part of it.

“I am disappointed by the fact the referee had a decent view of the incident and he didn’t give the penalty.

“I think if the assistant is going to give a penalty from such an inconclusive situation then he is a very brave man.

“I thought Darren slid in to try and block the ball, yet the referee is not sure.

“It’s the linesman who has decided to give the penalty.”

Blackburn manager Mark Hughes, whose side are now into the hat for the last-four draw, was unsure about the penalty incident as he had not seen a replay, but nevertheless he was grateful it went his side’s way.

“He (Barry) took an age to give it, which I could have done without, but thankfully he has pointed to the spot and Paul has stuck his hand up and showed great responsibility,” said Hughes.

BLACKBURN: Friedel, Neill, Todd, Nelsen, Johansson, Mokoena (Stead 56), Thompson, Flitcroft, Reid (Emerton 67), Pedersen, Dickov.

LEICESTER: Walker, Kenton, Dabizas, Dublin, Maybury, Gillespie, Williams (Hughes 87), Gudjonsson, Nalis (McCarthy 86), Tiatto (Connolly 87), de Vries.

Referee: N Barry (N Lincolnshire).