Roberto targets rapid response

Roberto Soldado insists the players must recover quickly from the blow of exiting the FA Cup at the hands of Leicester on Saturday with another “important game” fast approaching.

Late goals from Leonardo Ulloa and Jeff Schlupp saw the Foxes overturn the 1-0 first half lead given to us by Andros Townsend’s penalty to advance to the Fifth Round of the competition as 2-1 winners.

Striker Roberto was the player brought down for the spot kick – just as it was the Spaniard whose actions forced Jay McEveley to handle in the area and concede the penalty from which Andros gave us a 1-0 victory over Sheffield United in the first leg of our Capital One Cup semi-final in midweek – and while admitting his disappointment at Saturday’s result at White Hart Lane, the 29-year-old says a positive outcome in the second leg of that Blades tie can ease the pain of losing out to the Foxes.

“It’s difficult to take today’s result because we wanted to win,” said Roberto. “It was a bad day for us, an unlucky game.

“Every player wants to support the team with his work and today I won another penalty, but it was not sufficient for the victory.

“Now we need to keep working hard this week because we play a very important game at Sheffield United on Wednesday, where we are 90 minutes away from a final.”

In addition to Wednesday’s clash at Bramall Lane, Roberto stressed the need to keep performing well in all competitions as our season continues to evolve.

“The FA Cup is an important competition for us and we have a good squad of players who want to compete in these games,” he added. “But now the FA Cup is over for us and we need to look forward.

“We are still in the Capital One Cup and we have the Premier League and Europa League challenges as well. These are very important competitions and we need to be confident going into our matches. We have some big games ahead.”