Blackburn Rovers 1 Leicester City 0: Destiny dictated that Mark Hughes would make a swift return to the Millennium Stadium. For the first time in 45 years Blackburn Rovers have reached the last four of this competition and, when this pocket of Lancashire ups sticks for Cardiff next month, few will remember how torturous a task it was to squeeze through this quarter-final.
This was a mind-numbing contest, although Leicester City, the Football League's last Cup representatives, scarcely deserved to lose. The rugged visitors had stifled what little Rovers could muster until Morten Gamst Pedersen tumbled over Darren Kenton in the area late on.
Paul Dickov battered the penalty down the centre and Hughes, the Wales manager until last September, was on his way home. "I'm pleased to be going back," said the four-time FA Cup winner. "They are always fantastic occasions, and my connections with Cardiff are obvious. We're grateful to have got through, and we're delighted to be going to the Millennium Stadium, but you've got to win semi-finals to enjoy them."
Leicester will feel the same way about quarter-finals and departed livid at the decision that effectively jettisoned them from the competition. Pedersen had collected David Thompson's pass and stopped the ball near the touchline when Kenton slid in to challenge. The loanee from Southampton made minimal contact with the Norwegian in the tackle, with Pedersen then twisting and turning into his opponent before tumbling over the full back's prone body.
The referee, Neale Barry, initially appeared satisfied that no misdemeanour had taken place, though his linesman flagged for a foul. The arguments sparked immediately, Leicester players surrounding the officials, and continued to flare post-match.
"The referee obviously didn't think it was a penalty and was a lot closer than his assistant," said Craig Levein. "I've watched it three or four times and I don't think it's clear.
"This was a quarter-final of the FA Cup. Getting through might have been worth £1.5 million to us, a hell of a lot of money. How can the linesman give a penalty in such an inconclusive situation? All the hard effort, not just today but getting to this stage, has been undone by one decision."
The concession left Leicester with seven minutes to pluck parity from the dregs, though they rarely threatened to glean reward.
"If we'd lost to a team who had out-played us and scored three or four, we could have said we weren't good enough," added Levein. "But Blackburn weren't like that. We more than matched them."
The Scot's suffocating game-plan - a quintet of midfielders snapping behind the battering ram that is Mark de Vries - saw to that, with Rovers' cautious formation dashed on the swath of visiting defenders.
Pedersen flung a free-kick on to the post early on, but that was as imposing as the Premiership side could muster until Jon Stead was introduced as a second striker.
The move prompted a flurry of chances, Lucas Neill crossing for Stead to convert only for the referee to haul play back for an offence in the build-up. From Pedersen's resultant free-kick, the ball fizzed through the six-yard box and narrowly avoided Nils-Eric Johansson's lunge at the far post.
But it came as little surprise that a mediocre decision should deny City a replay. Dickov, a Leicester player last season and taunted by the travelling support, thrashed the penalty home. The striker will miss Wednesday's Premiership visit to Liverpool with a groin problem, though, for once, he will not complain: after months of toiling, Blackburn's season has new focus.
