Middlesbrough needed a fluky own-goal from Paddy Kenny in extra-time to finally book their place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with a 1-0 victory over Sheffield United at the Riverside.

After two scoreless matches, the breakthrough finally came seven minutes from the end of extra-time when Boro netted their unconventional winner.

It came when the ball fell to Mido just inside the box, the Egyptian's shot then took a massive deflection off Chris Morgan before looping onto the crossbar - the on-the-floor Kenny instinctively stuck an arm out to try and gather the ball only to push it into his own net.

Middlesbrough's reward for the victory is a home tie with Cardiff in the quarter-finals.

It was cruel luck on Kenny who had been equal to everything that Middlesbrough had thrown at him throughout the match.

Admittedly, that wasn't a lot, as the Premier League side struggled to hit the target or create meaningful chances despite always looking the more likely side to score.

The best moment of the match probably came in the 24th minute when Stewart Downing played a lovely one-two with Fabio Rochemback only to drag a right foot shot wide when clear on goal.

Afonso Alves, making his first start for Boro, looked very sharp and threatened on more than one occasion, but the few shots he got on target were never clinical enough to get past Kenny.

However, the fact that the Middlesbrough's fans booed Gareth Southgate's decision to take off the Brazilian in the 73rd shows that the Riverside faithful were happy with what they saw from the £12 million pound man.

Througout the evening Sheffield United failed to anything going in an attacking sense, but at the same time, they never looked like they were holding on either.

Kenny did make a smart double save early in extra-time to deny Downing and Tuncay in quick succession but it did look very much like the match was heading to penalties until the own-goal.

After the goal, the match actually finally came to life, as the Blades had no option but to throw men forward (including Kenny for one free-kick), which turned the game into an entertaining end-to-end contest.

However, the hosts managed to hang on, and they will fancy their chances of a semi-final spot when they host another Championship side in the form of Cardiff in the last eight.

Seán Fay / Eurosport