BRUM MUG WOLVES

 

(Image taken from Sporting Life)

United managed to win their FA Cup 3rd round match by beating Man City 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium. Therefore this time around the Reds have no need to have to take the detour of a replay. However other teams of course weren't so lucky. Most Premiership sides secured a spot in the next round at the first time of asking, a few got knocked out at the first time of asking, one at the hands of a lower division side. However a few still had to add an extra game to their schedules. Managers tend not to like Cup replays due to the fixture congestion they cause. However a few interesting ties from a neutral point of view still needed one to settle them.

Last time around, Wolves faced Championship Doncaster in the FA Cup 3rd round. The original match finished 2-2 at the Keepmoat Stadium, forcing Wolves to take the underdogs back for a replay at Molineux where they won 5-0. In the meantime Birmingham, then a Premiership side managed by Alex McLeish were facing Millwall in the FA Cup 3rd round at the New Den. Brum beat the underdogs 4-1, managing to go three up before half time with Matt Derbyshire and Cameron Jerome hitting the net for them. The two sides have a reasonable rivalry and both sides have a pretty good record in the early stages of the competition that they ere keen to keep up.

This time around, Chris Hughton, a former Republic of Ireland teammate of Wolves manager Mick McCarthy is Birmingham manager with the team now having been relegated to the Championship. The original match between these sides ended as a 0-0 draw at St Andrews. With Wolves fighting off relegation from the Premiership and Birmingham hoping to at least get into the Championship playoffs, this tie was always going to be tough to predict. Now they were set to face each other in an FA Cup 3rd round replay at Molineux. The pressure was all on the home side with their fans expecting them to bury the underdogs once and for all.

Sure enough Wolves were the first side to go on the attack and Sylvain Ebanks-Blake in particular caused the visitors headaches early on but the Brum goalie remained defiant and even a freak clash of heads between two Brum players couldn't dampen the visitors' resolve. They also rose to the challenge at the other end before the end of the half and went on to run the show as the period wound to a close but Wolves managed to keep them out. Overall it was a better match that the original affair which was very uneventful but the tie was still too close to call at this point. The Wolves fans in particular would have been hoping that their side had an extra gear.

Wolves resumed their attacking in the early stages of the second half but yet again the Birmingham defence held firm. Brum's attackers were also continuing to be a force to be reckoned with at the other end and it was starting to look like extra time would be needed to break the deadlock. As it was though in the 74th minute Jordan Mutch sent in a corner for Brum, Wade Elliott hit the post with his initial effort, the David Murphy had a go, then Elliot poked it in at the second time of asking. Wolves pushed for an equaliser and had a great chance near the end but again the Brum goalie proved too good for them on the night and McCarthy was left embarrassed.

Elsewhere, QPR beat L1 MK Dons 1-0 at Loftus Road. The home side's performance was pretty messy and in the first half in particular they looked liable to get mugged. However the Premiership side got out of trouble with a second half winner. Bolton beat L2 Macclesfield Town 2-0 at the Reebok Stadium. Wanderers dealt with the underdogs pretty effectively, getting their goals early in the match before having to keep out the resurgent visitors in the second half. With Wolves getting mugged that left sixteen Premiership sides remaining in the competition. Certainly not the freakiest of Cup competition that I've ever seen so far but there's a fair way to go.

North of the border, Dunfirmline faced Inverness CT at East End Park in an all-SPL Scottish Cup 4th round replay. Andrew Barrowman opened the scoring for the Pars late in the first half and the home side maintained their lead till the interval. Caley then equalised thanks to Jonathon Hayes early in the second half. That fired up the visitors, possibly a little too much as they started snarking at each other but ultimately neither side was able to retake the lead. That meant that the tie was forced into extra time with neither side really having dominated normal play though Caley had lost a player to injury which in theory didn't do their prospects any good.

In practice though they completed the turnaround early in the first half of extra time thanks to Andrew Shiney. The Pars pressed for an equaliser but their best opportunity was fired straight at the Caley goalie before half time. Caley went on to finish the game off in the second period of extra time through Greg Tansey. After that, the game pretty much wound itself down with Caley having secured themselves a spot in the next round. They are one of eleven SPL sides that have made it through to the next round and this season's Scottish Cup campaign seems to be another competition where the underdogs look to have blunt teeth.

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