Cherries: Goal hero O'Kane plots an FA Cup shock (From Bournemouth Echo)

Cherries: Goal hero O'Kane plots an FA Cup shock

7:00am Monday 7th January 2013 in Cherries News By Ian Wadley

GOAL hero Eunan O’Kane is confident Cherries can still produce an FA Cup shock and insists: “We are not scared of anyone.”

The midfielder was in bullish mood ahead of Cherries’ replay with Wigan Athletic after his fine strike had earned a 1-1 draw at DW Stadium.

Cherries were denied an impressive third round victory when Jordi Gomez hit a 70th-minute equaliser to cancel out O’Kane’s first-half opener.

Eddie Howe’s men, unbeaten in 17 games since his return, will welcome the Latics to Dean Court on January 15, subject to potential TV coverage.

And O’Kane says the Dorset outfit’s performance on Saturday has given them reason to be optimistic for the re-run against the Premier League club.

He told the Daily Echo: “After the performance we gave, you have got to fancy our chances.

“I don’t think Dean Court is a very nice place for a Premier League side to have to come. We can, hopefully, make things as difficult as we possibly can for them.

“They are going to have to come down there and give a very good account of themselves to walk away with a win.

“At the minute, everyone is very confident and we are not scared of anyone so you can throw whoever you want at us.”

Wigan twice rattled the crossbar in the second half but Cherries, who felt they should have been awarded a penalty for a challenge on Marc Pugh, came close to a winner through Josh McQuoid, Harry Arter and Steve Cook.

“We did very well,” said O’Kane. “The manager said to us during the week that he didn’t want us to come here and just park the bus. He said, at times, we were going to have our backs against the wall at a Premier League club.

“But, at times, we showed that we can play football and that we weren’t scared to come here and do it.

“We managed to get ourselves up the pitch and it wasn’t by lumping it – it was very controlled at times. I think everyone involved in the club has got to take huge confidence from that. Hopefully, we can do that in our league games and pick up a lot more points.”

O’Kane, who ranked his goal in the “top two or three” of his career, added: “You could probably tell me more about it!

“I just remember it dropping down and Harry Arter putting me in. The guy was coming to close me down and I think I let in run across my body and I just threw my left foot at it. Thankfully, it ended up in the back of the net.

“I am quite happy to use my left foot but that is on a very short list of goals scored with my left foot from outside the box.”

Cherries will visit Macclesfield in the fourth round if they beat Wigan.