Wiltord's second secures spot prize (original) (raw)

Sylvain Wiltord hit the winning penalty but it was only a brief reprieve. He had already missed one spot kick in the tense shoot-out after 120 minutes in which he failed to break Rotherham's defence, and the younger, sharper Jérémie Aliadière, who found his way through after 11 minutes, is putting pressure on his fellow Frenchman, whose unsigned contract remains in the vice-chairman's office.

Though naturally reluctant to expose youngsters to the high rollers' table of the Premiership, Arsène Wenger may have seen enough here to push Aliadière in for Saturday's game with Leeds at the expense of Wiltord.

Wenger handed six players their senior debuts, with the 16-year-old Cesc Fabregas becoming Arsenal's youngest-ever player after being filched from Barcelona in the summer.

"I enjoy this competition because it gives me a chance to observe our younger players in action," said Wenger. "They were caught by the emotion and the intensity of the game and you can't give this kind of experience to any player in a training session."

The experience was rendered palatable for those youngsters only because they walked away with a win. Had the 17-year-old Quincy Owusu-Abeyie's penalty shoot-out miss cost his side the game, he might have forgotten his excellent contribution after coming on as a substitute.

Older heads on the pitch faltered. Rotherham's 31-year-old goalkeeper Mike Pollitt was sent off for deliberately handling Quincy's goal-bound chip when out of his area. Having committed exactly the same offence 10 days earlier at Crystal Palace, and having witnessed the outstanding performance of his understudy Gary Montgomery, it was perhaps not surprising that he stomped off the pitch pleading his innocence to anyone who would listen.

At the time of Pollitt's exit the visitors were already a goal down but Darren Byfield's headed goal from Chris Sedgwick's 90th-minute cross forced extra-time. Edu might have clinched it for Arsenal with a wicked drive from 25 yards which Montgomery forced over.

Yet only a penalty shoot-out, in which 17 spot kicks were taken, could befit the drama of the night. Perhaps it was equally fitting that Chris Swailes, the oldest player on the pitch, should have missed the crucial penalty which opened the door for Wiltord to take the game to its crescendo.

The stage was set as Arsenal took the lead after only 12 minutes. The debutant Gaël Clichy fed Wiltord, who ducked a shoulder before slipping Nwankwo Kanu through. The Nigerian made a delicious feint before prodding across the six-yard box for the unmarked Aliadière to score.

But it was not all Arsenal. and their goalkeeper Graham Stack was forced to save a deflected Carl Robinson shot after a drive through the middle from Byfield. Paul Hurst then opened up the home defence with a deep, low cross which eluded all in the Arsenal area, including his lunging team-mate Sedgwick, and Byfield should then have done better than to shoot at Stack.

The Gunners were the youngsters but it was Rotherham's Richard Barker who was struck with stage fright at the far post, failing to connect with Sedgwick's cross with the goal at his mercy.

But the mistake only served as the catalyst for a period of superiority for the visitors. Using their strength and a flurry of set pieces, Rotherham ruffled Arsenal as the unsteady Stathis Tavlaridis and Pascal Cygan failed to find their footing, with Byfield stepping through for a shot he pulled just wide.

Rotherham's manager Ronnie Moore was left to reflect on a disappointing cup exit, but rightly lauded his side. "I'm proud of my lads," he said. "Whatever team they put out, it's still Arsenal."