Today's FA Cup Action

Today sees only two matches in this weekend's FA Cup action with Stoke taking on a free-scoring Arsenal side brimming with confidence and lowly Scunthorpe tackling Roberto Mancini's miserly Manchester City.   This year's FA Cup has not thrown up too many surprises with only Reading and Leeds being the non-Premiership sides to shine against their more illustrious, and richer, opposition.  But Scunthorpe, who lie fourth-bottom in the Championship only four points clear of the last relegation place, offer an interesting conundrum considering Reading's win against Burnley yesterday.  Can the odds be upset again today or will form, and class, win out? 

Big Match Centre's Predictions:

Scunthorpe 1-3 Man City, R4, 16:00
Stoke          1-2v Arsenal, R4, 13:30

FA Cup Replays Overview

The FA cup replays continued this week; most results were as expected, with one notable exception - Liverpool being dumped out by an out of form Reading team. Reading, having taken just 1 point from their travels this season, earned a replay against the former champs & looked certain to be heading out, trailing 1-0 in injury time. A clear penalty by Benayoun late in injury time followed by a coolly taken penalty ensured extra time. Leading up to the penalty Liverpool were under pressure & earlier in the half Reading should have equalised when McAnuff had a 1-on-1 chance with the keeper.
Overall the loss was a shock to the Merseyside giants, but on the night Reading did look the better team & thoroughly deserved the win & now it’s left to Rafa to salvage what he can from the season...
IN other results, well done to Newcastle man Peter Lovenkrands for scoring a hatrick in their 3-0 dominating victory over Plymouth, Newcastle have had a harsh year-and-a-half and it’s good to see the club doing well on the pitch.
A narrow 1-0 win saw Birmingham beat Notts Forest in an encounter Forest dominated . The chances were there for the visitors but for lack of finishing & missed chances, a 60th minute Baarry Ferguson goal gave the win to the home team.
Bristol & Cardiff managed a replay after a 92nd min equaliser by the home team saw Welsh hearts broken by their local rivals – more on this after the tie has concluded.
The theme of late goals continued as struggling Portsmouth defeated Coventry. Leading 1-0 until the 90th min, a Stephen Wright OG in the 90th saw extra time & a relatively uneventful extra time was bought to a conclusion with a 120th minute goal by Pompey man Mokoena.
Late goals were definitely the order of the day as Derby dumped Millwall out of the competition, goals either side of extra time & a 5-3 victory on penalties gave the home team the tie in a scrappy, low selling game
Final tie of the night saw the other Sheffield (united) defeat home team QPR.  Four goals in the 2nd half saw a 0-1 cushion for united change to a 3-2 increasingly nervy victory. An eventful period of 20mins in the 2nd half saw the goals flowing & had the visitors 2-3 up for the final few minutes.

Omar Malick

FA Cup weekend

Not too many surprises from the third round of the FA Cup, although congratulations have to go to Nottingham Forest for a fine attacking display against a resolute Birmingham as well as Coventry who managed to pull off a 1-1 draw at Fratton Park against struggling (and almost penniless) Portsmouth.  The most interesting result came at the Madejski stadium where struggling Reading produced a powerful and commanding display against a full-strength Liverpool team that can only consider themselves very lucky to be playing a replay at