BIRTHDAY BOY Peter Crouch revealed that penalty practice with Matthew Le Tissier helped him net the injury-time winner.

The former Pompey striker celebrated his 24th birthday yesterday - fresh from scoring his fourth goal in a many games to dump his old club out of the FA Cup.

And he revealed that a shoot-out against Saints legend Matthew Le Tissier, who only missed one spot-kick during his career, helped give him the confidence to beat Konstantinos Chalkias.

Crouch said: "I've been practising with Matthew Le Tissier and managed to beat him in a practice shoot-out this week, so I felt confident and grabbed the ball straight away when the ref gave it.

"With Kevin Phillips and Jamie Redknapp both injured I was the first in there and I'm only just beginning to realise how much that penalty means.

"It just seemed to be written in the script that that was how it was going to finish but it could have gone either way.

"It was a real cup tie, they had good chances as well. Ricardo Fuller came on and caused problems, but so did we."

Crouch, who was sold to Pompey for £5 m by Harry Redknapp on transfer deadline day 2002 - just a few days after Redknapp had replaced Graham Rix as Pompey boss.

Crouch won his first Saints start in the Premiership in Redknapp's opening game in charge against Middlesbrough in December, scored, and hasn't looked back.

His goal on Saturday - where he led the line in a 4-5-1 formation for the second week running - was his seventh for Saints in nine league and cup starts plus nine as a sub.

Crouch added: "The manager's shown a lot of faith in me by playing me up front on my own and the fans have seen me play week in, week out and they know that I give 100 per cent in every game.

"Hopefully that (penalty) will endear me to them even more."