Neil McDonald couldn't hide his delight and his relief as Rovers booked a semi-final tie against Aston Villa after winning a penalty shootout against Chelsea.

120 minutes saw the two sides play out a 3-3 thriller before Rovers came out on top in the resulting penalty shootout, winning that 4-3.

"I thought we really deserved the victory," McDonald told Radio Rovers after the game.

"We took the lead and played really well, but then they put their big gun on, which we had talked about, and he scores straight away.

"But I thought we fully deserved to go through and it is a fantastic result for everybody."

it was nerve-jangling stuff as Rovers missed chances to put the game to bed in the 90 minutes and then they couldn't hold on in added time.

"We didn't hit the target to kill the game off, we should have been more clinical, but we are through, we'll take it, and we are very very happy."

Rovers surprised many with their attacking line-up, but McDonald explained the reasoning behind the unexpected 4-3-3 formation.

"We matched them up like for like in midfield and tried to stop their flow of play which I think we did at times.

"That worked to a certain extent, then we counter-attacked and we got players forward which was great.

"If we had used the ball a little bit better against their ten men at the end we could have killed the game off.

"We didn't, but we are through on penalties and it is a fantastic feeling."