25 mins. Beware the Newcastle fan at Ewood Park (remember Graham Fenton?) A Frandsen through ball was lofted centrally towards the edge of the United area, with Steve Harper coming off his line and Nicos Dabizas and Helder seemingly in control of the situation. 

A moment later the ball was lofted over Harpers head and scurried into an empty net, courtesy of Geordie-loving Matt Jansen. Without seeing a replay, my  reaction was to blame the 'keeper. 1-1.

Half time: Rovers 1 Magpies 1

79 mins. With the introduction of Didier Domi, United had a safer outlet from the flanks and after a couple of warmup runs, the Frenchman swept past a stationary McAteer to power down the left and find his captain with a driven low pass. 

A close-in finish from Alan Shearer saw the ball hammered into the roof of the net and he lay on the Ewood turf in ecstasy, with Dailly and Peacock again exchanging enquiring glances. 2-1

While the chattering classes bemoan the demise of the FA Cup as a spectator sport, Newcastle United in general and Alan Shearer in particular seem intent on reminding the nation of the magic of the competition. 

Aided by our fans on TV (who've now beamed eight of our last nine FA Cup ties to the nation), and backed by 8,000 intoxicated black and white-clad bellowing dancers in the Darwen End, we, and they did it again.

That a place at Prenton Park was ultimately earned by the eleven on the pitch is irrefutable, but depending on ones' viewpoint, various personalities could be deemed matchwinners apart from the goalscorer. Bobby Robson for one, who saw the danger of Helder departing via a second yellow card and quickly exchanged him for the warmed up Hughes. You could also argue his introduction of Domi changed the course of the game in our favour, or avoided a replay at the very least.

At the back, Harper, who must share the blame for the Rovers goal with his stationary and culpable central defenders, at least didn't launch himself at Jansen and pay the price, showing his dismissal for assaulting Martin Johnson at Birmingham earlier in the season taught him something. 

However, his most telling contribution was an instinctive block on the line to deny Jansen another goal, something Shearer acknowledged in the euphoric post-match celebrations as he broke off from leering at the cameras and grinning at the toon end to give the 'keeper a cuddle.

Of course, this being a cup tie played in an old-fashioned atmosphere, little things like defending cohesively were put aside by both teams and buckles were swashed as the two sets of fans roared on their heroes to greater endeavours. While league encounters at Ewood in recent years have been positively moribund affairs (save for that classic Rovers Title clincher 1-0 game) the cup ties have brought the stayaways back to fill the home stands and voices to be rediscovered.

Again, locals had the usual anti-Shearer antagonism to live up to, having seen other crowds make headlines for similar behaviour and their manager "appeal for calm" - always works that one....

What I cannot understand, apart from the fact that the player in question almost singlehandedly brought them unprecedented success, is how a home support can lose itself in anti-such and such songs and chants, to the exclusion of supporting their own team. 

When Ginola got stick at Newcastle, it was against an atmosphere buoyed by early goals and cup and drink-related optimism, and interspersed with pro-toon support. My impression of Ewood Park was that some people were more bothered about shouting at Shearer than encouraging Blake for example. A case of getting ones priorities wrong methinks. Perhaps they'd rather he'd signed for Manchester United.....

Staying with this point, the mackems seem to be fixated with us, and amuse themselves for hours with anti-Mag ditties when playing other teams. Why ? I know our lot have some similar stuff in their repertoire, but it seems to come out in some sort of context, rather than a constant tirade of abuse. Still, that's mackems for you...

Back to the action at Blackburn, and a victory that wasn't as deserved as some reports had it. Halftime conversation produced an almost  unanimous "taking the draw" response from fellow travellers, and a general feeling that we need to buck up a bit. Good individual performances for once didn't manifest themselves in a memorable team display, and the undoubted effort put in by the likes of Gallacher hadn't really produced too much apart from our goal.

Fast forward, if you will, 45 minutes on and a joyous away end saluting the conquerors in black and white. Quite how they did it I don't know, but I'm bloody glad they did. Rovers, having matched us for endeavour and spirit, not to mention creating more chances, were ultimately toppled by lacking a forward who could be relied on to put the ball in the back of the net when the opportunity arose. Someone like Mr Shearer perhaps.....they may mock, as Watford mocked, but they'd crawl up the A1 on their hands and knees to have him back....

PS: Possibly the most unexpected event of the evening was the revealing of not one but two new Shearer celebrations; the opener being greeted by a Batistuta-esque archer pose we'll call the King Harold, and the winner a bellyflop - the Hippo perhaps.....strange times we live in.

PPS: And another thing,we finally scored at the Darwen end for the first time in living memory. Right in front of the Newcastle fans who went bananas, to use a technical description. Some of my number in the home seats told tales of locals covering their ears and complaining at the amount of noise we were making. God bless 'em.

Biffa