Good performance keeps Burton happy
Wimbledon manager Terry Burton still managed to remain positive today even though David Connolly missed a late chance to take last night's FA Cup third round replay at Middlesbrough into extra time.
With Middlesbrough 1-0 up through Noel Whelan's third-minute goal, Connolly could have levelled the scores from Kevin Cooper's cross 14 minutes from time but he shot wide with the goal at his mercy.
Five minutes later, an own goal from Kenny Cunningham, who turned a cross from Allan Johnston into his own net, gave Middlesbrough a 2-0 win and a fourth round home tie against Manchester United.
"You want to get results. They are what keep everybody in a job. But at the end of a game like that you always have to take some satisfaction from the performance," said Burton.
Wimbledon were no pushovers and it took three fine saves from goalkeeper Mark Crossley to deny Republic of Ireland international Connolly an equaliser.
Burton added: "David's a very bright player and, by his own standards, he'll be disappointed that he's not taken at least one of those chances.
"The first one in the second half, I don't think the goalkeeper knew too much about it. He just got across the goal and, credit to him, made a barrier and stopped the ball going in."
Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren, who will now pit his wits against United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, his former mentor at Old Trafford, in the next round, urged his men to concentrate on Saturday's Premiership clash with Bolton Wanderersat the Riverside Stadium. Boro, who played out last night's game in front of a record low 9,687 FA Cup crowd at the Riverside, will go into the Bolton game lying 17th in the league and facing a battle against relegation for the second successive season.
"It's a massive game for us against Bolton and we've said that to the players," he admitted.
"The last time we were in this kind of spell, we beat Northampton 3-1 in the Worthington Cup in a scrappy game and we went on to produce some good results.
"We're hoping that this result will do the same for us."
Boro v Wimbledon - match stats
