EDDIE Howe dedicated his Carling Cup heroics to his family after he finally laid to rest the injury nightmare of the past two seasons.

Cherries won an incredible penalty shoot-out 7-6 over Blackburn after an unbelievable 3-3 draw at the home of the 1995 Premiership champions.

The defender, on loan from Portsmouth was superb at the heart of Sean O'Driscoll's battling side and it was fitting that he should be the man to step up and drill home the decider in sudden death that had the rest of the Cherries heroes racing to congratulate him.

Howe beamed: "I think that is my best game since I came back and I'd like to dedicate it to my family. They helped me through the really tough times when I was injured.

"This is my first good day in Football for a long, long time and you need to cherish them.

"Football is a hard game. One minute you are up and the next minute you are down. You take the highs and the lows but I have definitely had more lows than highs lately.

"But although it was a great moment for me, all of the boys deserve the credit for the character we showed and the performance we put in."

Although the popular defender admitted his technique for spot-kicks is not based on any great science, it was hugely effective when it was most required as he blasted past Peter Enckelman.

He smiled: "I knew when Tugay missed that it was up to me. I was thinking 'here we go'.

"The lads said I didn't look confident but I felt okay. I was just trying to hit it as hard as I could and hoped for the best! My penalty-taking technique is head down and hit it as hard as possible but I was delighted to see it go in.

"I've taken one before against Dover in the LDV but it was the same nerves. I scored that one as well so that is two out of two now though."

The performance of the entire Cherries team was another testament to the character of the side. After falling behind early on, Garreth O'Connor volleyed home the equaliser before Karl Broadhurst put Cherries ahead with eight minutes of normal time remaining.

With the celebrations ready to kick off in the away end, Morten Gamst Pederesen hauled Rovers level in injury time before Paul Gallagher seemed to put the tie beyond Cherries' reach just a minute into extra time.

But John Spicer found an equaliser for O'Driscoll's side five minutes from the end of extra time to send the clash into the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.

Howe said: "I was really pleased for the boys - we showed great character.

"I'll get the attention for scoring the winning penalty but it is down to the other lads who scored theirs that kept us in it and everyone else who did a brilliant job for us.

"We could have easily folded when they scored early and it could have happened again when they scored straight into extra-time.

"But we came back superbly. Everyone deserves a huge pat on the back for the way we came back and went on to win."

Cherries boss Sean O'Driscoll, who calmly surveyed the unfolding penalty drama with a cup of tea on the sideline, was equally pleased with the performance of his side.

He said: "We knew we would have to chase the ball at certain times but it was down to us to pose them problems when we had the ball. I thought we did that - regardless of the result.

"We hung in there at times but it is credit to the boys that we came away with the result. We got our rewards and hopefully that will give us some confidence to go on from here."

O'Driscoll, who stressed his side had not practised their penalties in training, also revealed spot-kick hero Howe was not among the volunteers to step up from 12 yards but did the job manfully.

He said: "You have to trust the boys who are confident to take them. In sudden death though, there were a few boys who didn't want to take them but they coped really well.

"Shaun (Maher) and Eddie were the reluctant takers but they got on with it and hit the target. That is all you can ask."