Goals from Albrighton, Carew and Young did the business and we even had a sort of happy taglor last night. Half of me expects to see AVMark come on today with more words of wisdom for us, but I think stubbornness may keep him away.
But when you needed two clear goals to go through and you go one nil down, you could hardly blame the lads for not getting through, as it is pre-season and is all about the fitness, but they did what was necessary and the reward is a match against Porto tomorrow night in the semi-finals of the Peace Cup, with a potentila match against Juventus or Real Madrid in the final.
The night wasn't all happiness and joy however. Petrov came off injured with a dislocated shoulder and Martin O'Neill was sent to the stands in the first half, but he did have a bit to say also on the result.
Martin O'Neill
I am pleased because the semi-final gives us another competitive game. It comes around rather quickly on Friday night but when we set out in the first place, it was an aim of ours to go as far as we could.
I accept it is a balancing act - players coming back to full fitness but also making sure there is a competitive spirit about us too. I am delighted to be here in the semi-finals. Judging by the reaction of the players in the dressing room after the game, they are too.
I don't want to go on too much about the match, but on the displays we have seen and the quality of crossing from Marc Albrighton the last couple of games, I fancy James Milner might have a difficult time with getting his place back. Sure, the Premier League is different, but Albrighton has shown some real talent and if he can transfer that to the league, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't get a run to show us what he has got.
Stand in right back Eric Lichaj also deserves a mention as do Ashley Young and John Carew - generally the team played well last night, but some of the kids are showing some real promise and while it is exciting, I'm not going to get carried away just yet, I mean, you don't win anything with kids do you?
Moving on to some speculation and I'll keep this brief; we're monitoring Robbie Keane now that Crouch is at Spurs, who I'd love to finally see in claret and blue and Martin O'Neill is also interested in Matthew Upson to partner Distin in the middle. What happens to Davies and Cueller if those two rumours are true, I don't know, but they are just rumours.
Right, that is almost it for today, but there is something else from Matt later, which was going to get posted yesterday but never did and who knows, maybe something from the club, as I fancy they have to be close to announcing something, surely.