Tottenham FA Cup win was worth missing New Year for, says Roman Pavlyuchenko

Roman Pavylyuchenko believes Spurs' impressive FA Cup win over Wigan can give their season a real boost - and was worth missing out on New Year's celebrations for.

In Russia, New Year's Eve is the biggest party of the year and football takes a backseat.

But experiencing British football's hectic festive calendar for the first time Pavlyuchenko kept his celebrations low key and it paid off as he scored a double on Friday night.

He said: "I spent New Year with my family. We just stayed at home because I had a game less than 48 hours later.

"I did everything right - dinner and then bed. I did let myself have a little bit of champagne, but just a tiny bit.

"Of course it was a bit weird to be playing on the second. Previously I've always had time off at that time.

"But what can you do? Every footballer has to be professional and be able to adapt to whatever situation they find themselves in.

"I knew for three or four days I would be playing, it was obvious from the way we were set up in training.

"I felt good going into the game, the mood was good, cheerful. For some reason I had a feeling I would score."

Tottenham play Burnley tomorrow night in the Carling Cup semi-finals, their Cup successes in marked contrast to their Premier League campaign where they remain in the relegation dog fight.

But Pavlyuchenko, who scored four times in November before suffering a dip in form last month, believes he and the team are both back on the up after their FA Cup victory.

He added: "Of course losing isn't nice. But it is all fixable. I think the FA Cup win should rally the team and everything will be OK.

"Yes my goal sights were off in December - but that's because I was saving myself for January! But really, things can't go right all the time.

"Sometimes you're flying and sometimes you're on a downturn. You have to keep training and not give up. Then everything comes back."

And the Russian, who has nine goals in all competitions so far this season, had no hesitation in taking on the responsibility of scoring the penalty after Fraizer Campbell was brought down.

He explained: "Darren Bent usually takes the penalties but he wasn't on the pitch so I decided to take it upon myself. I didn't ask.

"I wanted the breakthrough and was confident I would score. I was calm and before I started walking up I'd already told myself I would put it in the left corner.

"For my second goal I think the goalkeeper could have done better. I didn't hit it that hard maybe he didn't see me strike it from behind a defender."

Get your hands on this week's estimated jackpot of £100,000 by playing the New Football Pools .

Find out what our resident Premier League fan bloggers think - and let them know your views.

Follow every Premier League game live with our brilliant Match Tracker .