HARRY REDKNAPP admitted he was a little worried when Peter Crouch stepped up to take the decisive injury-time penalty in Saturday's 2-1 FA Cup victory over Portsmouth.

He laughed: "When he picked the ball up, I turned and said 'I don't fancy Crouch' and someone said 'no, he'll be alright'.

"I was ready to slate them if he missed it but he stuck it in!

"We hadn't thought about getting a penalty. I thought 'who is going to take this?' and suddenly Crouchie grabbed the ball.

"He's done great for us, his touch and everything is good, but I hadn't seen him as a penalty taker to be honest.

"When he picked it up I was quite surprised, I really didn't think he would fancy taking a penalty.

Don't get me wrong, he's got terrific ability for a big fella and he fancied doing it so it wasn't a problem.

"Kevin Phillips is the penalty taker and he didn't play. Jamie (Redknapp) would have took them and he didn't play."

Redknapp, though, praised Crouch's character, adding: "Quite often it happens that if someone is confident enough to pick the ball up under pressure, like Crouch did at the end, you have to give him full credit and let him get on with it.

"It took some nerve. He wants it, so get on with it, that's great. He showed some nerve and he took it well."