BRUM, PRESTON, BLUES, BORO STILL IN CUP

 

 

So, though the FA Cup 5th round draw had been made there were still a few blank spaces in the schedule sheet the weeekend that needed to be solved.

First stop was St Andrews where Birmingham had to deal with Reading, both sides in a replay for the second round in a row. With neither team fielding their best available side, City's Mikael Forsell opened the scoring before Reading's still Hunt equalised, though it was Brum who took the glory with a Julian Gray winner to pick up a trip to the Britania Stadium to face Stoke in round 5.

Next was Selhurst Park for an all-Championship match between Crystal Palace and Preston. Darren Ward opened the scoring for Palace before Preston's Daniel Dichio swung things round with two identical goals from free kick set ups.

The headlines were always going to be made at Stamford Bridge though. As it happened Chelsea were already 3-0 up on Everton by half time thanks to goals from Arjen Robben, Frank Lampard(a penalty) and Hernan Crespo. Mikael Arteta pulled from back for Everton with a penalty of his own only for John Terry to fire in a class volley from a tight angle. Colchester are the next Cup visitors to Stamford Bridge.

Finally, up at the Riverside Middlesborough took on Coventry and Jimmy Flloyd Hasselbaink scored the only goal to win the match for Steve McLaren's crew. Thery's going to be up against Preston at Deepdale next.

There was also some Premiership action to give reason for a United fan to lick his lips. The Scousers blew one of their games in hand after getting beaten 2-0 at The Valley. Dareen Bent and Luke Young hitting the net. That leaves them six points behind United with only one game in hand which means that second place in the Premiership and an automatic run into the group stages of the Champions League is United's to lose!

North of the border, Aberdeen moved up to seventh place in the Scottish Premiership with a great win over Rangers at Pittodrie. Jaime Smith and Steve Lovell hit the net for the Dons in a match that leaves Alex McLeish's crew with no chance of having any say whatsoever in the title race.

Elsewhere, Celtic increased their lead at the top of the table to ten points with a 2-1 win over Falkirk at Celtic Park and a first goal in Glasgow green for Roy Keane. Stephen McManus made it two for the Celts before Kenny Milne pulled one back for Falkirk late on.

In a Scottish Cup 4th round replay at Alloa's Recreation Park, Division One Hamilton beat their Division Two hosts 3-0 with goals from Mark McLaughlin, Alex Neil and Brown Ferguson to face either Airdrie or Dundee at their New Douglas Park ground in round 5.

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