FA Cup 2012 Season

Middlesbrough 1-2 Sunderland

Tough game which had to go nearly to penalties to get a result.
Sunderland won it just before the end of extra time though & now face Arsenal at the Stadium of Light in the next round.
Middlesbrough tough series of results continue, as they now have not won a game since Boxing Day, although have often played well & been unlucky - as they were here again.
The Martin O'Neill show just keeps rolling along though. Some of that would appear to be down to luck, but Martin has always seemed to enjoy enough of that in his managerial career to suggest that maybe luck isn't actually a very large part of it!!

The FA Cup competition again has the weekend.



Some interesting match ups today & the chance of some real 'giant killing' tomorrow.

FULL-TIME: Chelsea 1-1 Birmingham

Uncomfortable first half for Chelsea.
Brum went into a one nil lead & then Mata missed a penalty & Chelsea looked a poor & disorganised side. Even the home crowd were not happy with the name of The Special One having another outing amongst the crowd. As it did at Milan in mid week, seems the place he is least popular at the moment is his current club who are sat on top of the Spanish league....strange world...
Anyway Drogba replaced Torres & Obi Mikel was replaced by Salomon Kalou as AVB decided Chelsea should try & score in the second half. To be honest the playing of defence minded Obi when at home against Championship side Birmingham was a peculiar decision by the Chelsea boss.
The half time media chatter was that Andre had 45 minutes to save his job. Chelsea scored & looked the more likely to win it in the second half without exactly putting the visitors under the cosh.

Should be an interesting match up at St. Andrews. Maybe Chelsea away will be a little more comfortable, they looked very nervous & continually looking for a banana skin at home.

I guess Chris Hughton will be very well satisfied with his teams' performance, not going to be a walk over in the return leg though either!!!

Rather too easy for Everton.
When you are away from home & a goal down within a minute of the kick off & two goals down just after 5 minutes, then you know that you are in for a tough afternoon. Blackpool had a great unbeaten start to 2012 but manager Holloway made 7 changes to the side that ran out the previous Tuesday.
Everton were just too good for the visitors & Blackpool were outclassed for most of the match.

All a little too easy for away Premier side Bolton as well. They may be struggling in the Premiership but they still had too much for Championship Millwall. While the home side often enjoyed a lot of possession they rarely threatened the Bolton goal.
However whereas Everton fans can look forward to a Cup run & an eventual victory would top off a season, Bolton rather have larger fish to fry. Premiership survival is certainly more important than even a Wembley trip & victory!!

Norwich have been playing entertaining, attacking football at home in the Premiership. It is rather surprising that they were out attacked by their Midland visitors then.
Indeed the home side only got back into the game courtesy of a soft penalty that they were fortunate to score on the rebound.
All in all a justified victory for the Championship side who certainly have not played as well as this all season & have often been a disappointment to their fans..

After the disappointment of a midweek first round thrashing by Milan it just got worse for the Gunners faithful.
I doubt if winning the FA Cup was ever top of Mr. Wengers' priorities at the start of the season but it really was down to winning this competition or nothing by the time this game eventually kicked off.
It was a poor performance by the Arsenal players & even substitutions did not improve that. Although Sunderland were rather gifted the second, own, goal the result was still a fair reflection of the game.
Lot for Arsenal to think about. Spend no money & constantly sell your best players has finally come back to haunt them this season. Mr. Wenger can no longer pull rabbits out of hats, that he has consistently managed to do so for so long is a testament of just what a great Premiership manager he has been.
There will undoubtedly be more calls for his head, but that will be from the foolish. I think Arsenal have more to worry about him finally having enough of the situation that he is in, rather than him to be concerned over a P45.
If anybody thinks that the crisis of non performance at the club can be improved by changing the manager then they are in for a huge shock once he does finally go...

Chelsea limping to a draw at home, Arsenal out of the competition, does this round have any more tricks up its' sleeve today??
Huge potential for an upset in all 3 games, but, as Zidane has already suggested, Stoke are probably the most likely to have 'after European competition' match worries....

FULL-TIME: Crawley 0-2 Stoke

Stoke almost made a difficult task impossible.
After 20 minutes & still at nil, nil they contrived to get Rory Delap sent off.
They are then rather gifted a penalty by Crawley & then the height of Peter Crouch to finish the job, & Crawley, off.
Another heroic attempt in the FA Cup by the Sussex side. Last season it took Manchester United to beat them & this season it again took a Premiership side....

Well North London did not exactly have a great time in any of the FA Cup games.
I suspect that Spurs will have an easier ride into the next round than Chelsea though.
Replay at WHL will be a nice, financially lucrative match for Stevenage, but, you suspect, little else.
Yes, they stopped Spurs scoring for 95 minutes but, realistically, never looked like winning the game.
The much vaulted Spurs midfield rather had to huff & puff their way though the match. It is pretty obvious on this showing why the manager fought so strongly to keep Modric out of the hands of other Premiership clubs.
I do expect a better job out of it from Spurs next time out though.

I had a sneaky suspicion that Pool also might be given a bit of a trial by Brighton. They (Pool) have rather a record of dropping the ball on these sort of occasions.
Not this time though.
Two one at half time gave no indication of the second half in which Brighton contrived to find the net 3 times, but all past their own keeper...
It is not often that a five goal thrashing can be called 'unfortunate' but this was rather. Pool were greatly flattered by the score, but will point out many other occasions where 'the rub of the green' has gone the other way & they have been unfortunate enough to lose!!



The two Liverpool sides just about had the easiest victories in the last round & have been kept apart by the draw so far...Could it be one of those sorts of finals??
The last few have been rather one sided affairs even before a ball had been kicked. This year it looks like it will be rather a final to relish.
The quarter-finals will be played on the weekend of 18-19 March, but still a bit of work in two of the games to decide which sides will compete!!

I suspect that the management of Birmingham are the most disappointed at the sacking of AVB.
After all, even he & his family get most of their income for the next 2 years in a lump sum & no longer have to live in England to get it either.
Brum, under the existing set up must have been quietly confident that they could progress to the next round. All bets are rather off now though. Given that effectively nothing has changed at Chelsea except that the players have got rid of the manager it will be very interesting as to the effort & commitment that the fielded side show. Exactly who plays will also be of interest. Will Roberto di Matteo have been given specific instructions from Mr. A as to what is expected of him until season end? Has he been promised any cash incentive to do Mr. A's bidding until season end??
Surely (FA Cup excepted) everyone involved with the club must have pretty much given up on winning anything this season. It would be a major surprise if Roberto stays after a new man has been appointed....Could he actually be given the job himself if he does manage an improvement? Personally I doubt it. Mr. A has made it plain to all that any less than the European Cup is the door. Even a recovery to win the FA Cup is surely a job well, well short of that!!

Even though Spurs also suffered a defeat at the weekend & are on a bit of a wobble themselves, I fancy that the Stevenage experience of the FA Cup is over. A loss would be a huge gloss off the North London sides' season, that is for certain!!

Sorry, no revenge for you Banjo..

No real line up shocks or changes for the visitors in what was a pretty dour encounter in the main.
Mata scored a goal & missed a penalty (as he had in the first leg) & Chelsea eased through...which was all Di Matteo needed. He has not managed to immediately turn around the fortunes of Torres as the striker had another disappointing encounter to add to his Chelsea history. He did manage to become the only Chelsea player to get his name in the book, but I rather think that is not really the type of 'commitment' that the new manager was calling for.
Brum offered a fair account for most of the contest & battled to the end despite rather running out of steam.
They can now concentrate on plan 1 - exit from The Championship.
Chelsea have another Midlands encounter in the next round against Leicester City at Stamford Bridge. A win would make them semi-finalists & is surely their only real chance of glory this season!!

Spurs for the Cup??
There are certainly worse bets out there.
Stevenage took a very early lead in this one from the spot. It didn't put the home side off their stride though & by half time they were level. A couple in the second half, the first from the spot as well, eased any nerves as defeats by Man U & The Gunners may have placed in the group.
The score makes it look like a comfortable result but this was no one sided affair & Stevenage contributed greatly to what was an entertaining game. In football though the difference is often the class of 1 man in front of goal when the chance does come. That man last night was Jermain Defoe & if he had turned out for the visitors instead then Spurs could easily be out of the Cup this morning.
As it is they will progress to a home tie against Bolton & a fair amount of certainty that they should win that & progress to the semi finals!!

I guess that the home sides are probably favourites in all 4 weekend ties.

Everton still struggle to score but are a very difficult side to beat at this part of the season. Sunderland have done remarkably well in the League under the new manager, but they are a little more 'gung ho' than the home side & that could prove their undoing - or their reason for a win...

Spurs are having a rough time of it of late, but probably not as rough a time as Bolton fans have endured all this season!!
To lose this game would be a real body blow for Spurs & just about prove that after all their heroics they have failed to complete the task. They have shown that they can just about match anyone with silky skills & certainly have the personnel to win this competition...do they have the bottle is the question??
I not sure what winning or losing will do for Bolton. If they do not get some results in the League then it is Championship football next season for certain. Is this an unwelcome distraction, or a chance to generate some belief in the side?? Answers on a post card, care of UdonMap....

FULL-TIME Everton 1-1 Sunderland

Well first game over & no farther forward...
It looked like this was going to be a Sunderland day as they came, dominated & scored early. But before half time Everton had equalised & from then on looked the side most likely to win it. Sunderland operated on the break, but there were few of those in the second half & pretty early on it looked like Sunderland were more than happy with taking the game back to the North East.
Everton just about deserved a win but it was a close run thing all the way through.
Not sure who will start favourite at the replay, as both sides will probably change tactics with venue..
I don't think either of these teams will strike fear in the remaining 6 sides but they both proved again that they are difficult to beat!!