FA Cup: Big boys all survive day of few shocks
Posted by admin on Jan 03, 2010 | Leave a Comment
FA Cup Third Round day did not supply its expected shock, if there can be such a thing, and the Saturday afternoon ties usually went with the club of higher league status on a day when Reading’s draw with Liverpool and Coventry City’s holding of crisis club Portsmouth were the only results containing any element of giantkilling.
Reading went a goal up on 24 minutes at the Madejski Stadium as Simon Church diverted...
Liverpool struggle to draw at Reading
Posted by admin on Jan 03, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Liverpool clung on to a 1-1 draw against Reading in an absorbing FA Cup third round tie at the Madejski Stadium.
The Championship strugglers more than matched their illustrious visitors, and opened the scoring through Simon Church before Steven Gerrard’s 36th-minute equaliser. Neither side could conjure a winner and the consequence is a replay at Anfield for a place in the last 32.
Having suffered an early Champions...
Manchester City ease past Middlesbrough
Posted by admin on Jan 03, 2010 | Leave a Comment
A weakened Manchester City side progressed to the FA Cup fourth round with a 1-0 win against Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.
Benjani Mwaruwari scored late in the first half with his only meaningful contribution to a drab encounter that lacked any of the FA Cup’s fabled magic.
Roberto Mancini fielded a shadow side, handing a debut to young defender Dedryck Boyata and including fringe players such as Javier...
Everton survive scare to beat Carlisle United
Posted by admin on Jan 03, 2010 | 1 Comment
Brave Carlisle were given a standing ovation at Goodison Park for their fighting display against last season’s beaten FA Cup finalists Everton but they ultimately lost 3-1.
Everton had been frustrated for long period by Greg Abbott’s defiant League One side in this third round tie.
And two late goals gave Everton a very flattering victory when the Cumbrians were already thinking about a money-spinning home...
Aston Villa ease past 10-man Blackburn Rovers
Posted by admin on Jan 03, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Goals from Nathan Delfouneso, Carlos Cuellar and John Carew earned Aston Villa a place in the fourth round of the FA Cup for only the third time in nine seasons as they beat 10-man Blackburn 3-1 at Villa Park.
Delfouneso struck his first goal of the campaign and Cuellar (pictured) added a second before Rovers saw David Dunn’s spot-kick saved by Brad Guzan and then had El-Hadji Diouf sent off for a lunging challenge...
Niko Kranjcar brace as Spurs beat Peterborough
Posted by admin on Jan 03, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Tottenham Hotspur made light work of Championship strugglers Peterborough United as they ran out 4-0 winners in the FA Cup third round clash at White Hart Lane.
Niko Kranjcar scored a brace with goals either side of half time, before Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane added a goal apiece, the latter from the penalty spot.
Despite insisting he was prioritising a top four league finish over silverware this season, Spurs manager...
Warning on England’s future after EPL match with no Englishmen
Posted by admin on Jan 02, 2010 | Leave a Comment
ENGLAND’s national team face a bleak future, Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce warned after Wednesday’s game between Portsmouth and Arsenal became the first in the top flight not to feature an English player in the starting line-up.
“For the national team in the future it is looking very, very bleak,” Allardyce said at a news conference ahead of his team’s third-round FA Cup tie against Aston Villa at the weekend.
“The...
The English FA Cup competition must prove its worth again
Posted by admin on Jan 02, 2010 | 1 Comment
HOW much the FA Cup still matters is a much discussed topic of conversation among English football fans.
It is a subject brought into even sharper focus at this time of year when the world’s oldest senior knockout football tournament reaches the third round stage, the point when teams from England’s top two divisions enter the event.
Conventional wisdom has it that the FA Cup has now lost much of its lustre.
The advent...
Fergie delighted with precocious youngsters
Posted by admin on Jan 02, 2010 | Leave a Comment
ALEX Ferguson enters a new year and new decade as manager of Manchester United confident the future of the club is in safe hands.
A new generation of young stars have been given their opportunities in the first half of the current campaign and Ferguson has promised he will retain his policy of using a relatively inexperienced side for the first leg of United’s eagerly-anticipated League Cup semi-final with Manchester...
Carrick relishes first taste of ‘War of the Roses’ against Leeds
Posted by admin on Jan 02, 2010 | 1 Comment
MICHAEL Carrick is relishing Manchester United’s FA Cup clash with bitter rivals Leeds here tomorrow and feels Alex Ferguson’s side are on the verge of a fine burst of form.
United go into the new year two points off the Premier League leaders Chelsea, safely through to the knock-out phase of the Champions League and with the first leg of their League Cup semi-final against Manchester City to come next week.
Even...
