IT’S SHORT BUT SWEET FOR O’NEIL
Hero Hayden gives battling Boro an advantage and leaves Poch and his wasteful Blues staring at a shock cup failure
WOLVES boss Gary O’neil accepts that he will have to go through the season with a threadbare squad.
The Black Country club have used just 23 players in the Premier League this term – the fewest in the division. And O’neil (below) had a wafer-thin squad to call on for the FA Cup draw at Brentford due to injuries and international duty.
But the Molineux gaffer said: “We’ve got a small squad. We had six or seven lads from the under-21s who were making up the bench against Brentford, but I enjoy the challenge.
“Given the situation that the club’s been in financially, we’re not going to be spending tens of millions on players.
“We’re going to be doing it with what we’ve got, and I have to say I love working with what I’ve got.”
HAYDEN HACKNEY evoked memories of Middlesbrough’s glory days as he fired Michael Carrick’s side to within 90 minutes of Wembley.
Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea millionaires bottled the first leg of this Carabao Cup semi-final as the England Under-21 midfielder gave the Teessiders a narrow lead.
Blues boss Pochettino is now under huge pressure to conjure a revival against the Championship side who were snappy, intense and tactically organised
Pictures of Boro’s only cup triumph – the League Cup two decades ago – adorn the training ground and are seen by their players every day at work.
On this evidence they could get another crack at a final.
The omens were not great for Boro given the recent history of these fixtures, with Chelsea winning their last nine clashes without conceding.
But it took a route one move to smash that statistic and put Chelsea’s
well hopes in peril. Jonny Howson pinged a quick ball forward over the top to find wing-back Isaiah Jones.
He turned England defender Levi Colwill (right) inside out, cutting inside to drill a cross to the near post.
There was only one Chelsea defender in the six-yard box and local lad Hayden Hackney nipped in to sidefoot home.
Moises Caicedo, the £115million midfielder tracked Hackney into the box then just stopped.
Hackney, 21, made his first-team breakthrough last season after a loan spell at Scunthorpe and had expected to play the season at Hartlepool.
It was Boro’s first goal against Chelsea in 10 games since Mark Viduka’s 2006 winner. The Riverside was electric, bringing back memories of their winning cup run, when Steve