Category: FA Cup

The chance to train in goal with the League Two side was too good to miss as excitement builds for Elland Road trip

“Patrick Bamford! Joël Piroe! Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink!” are screamed at me as shots are thrashed towards the net, testing my reflexes. Somehow I have become the fourth goalkeeper at one of Harrogate Town’s final training sessions before facing the Championship leaders, Leeds, in the third round of the FA Cup, one of the most significant games in the club’s 106-year existence.

It is too cold on this freezing morning for it to be a fever dream. There are four days to go before the League Two strugglers take on the Premier League wannabes and the pitches at Rothwell Juniors where Harrogate train on the outskirts of Leeds are rock solid, with temporary ice rinks dotted around. The outfield players have seen the conditions and decided it is better to stay inside in the warmth and do some strength work, while the manager, Simon Weaver, goes about trying to find alternative indoor facilities for the coming days.

Continue reading...

• Slot warns his players not to take League Two side lightly
• Federico Chiesa could make rare appearance for hosts

Arne Slot has warned Liverpool’s players they cannot be complacent against Accrington Stanley given they will treat their FA Cup third-round tie at Anfield on Saturday as their “Champions League final”.

The League Two side’s visit to Liverpool will be Slot’s first experience of facing an English lower league side in a competitive game. Eighty-seven places separate Accrington and the Premier League leaders, and a win for John Doolan’s team would go down as one of the great upsets in the competition’s long history.

Continue reading...

Accrington face the ultimate test, long throws await Spurs and there’s a potential blockbuster in north London

“We’re aware we were once mentioned in a milk advert,” reads the bio on Accrington Stanley’s X page. “We hear ‘Who are they?’ and ‘Exactly’ a lot.” Don’t be misled by the weary tone regarding their mention in the famous 1989 Milk Marketing Board advertisement, for which the club received £10,000. The connection has always been embraced and never more so than in the buildup to their third round visit to Liverpool, the Premier League leaders. As the Accrington captain Seamus Conneely said: “We’ve made it to third and fourth rounds before, we’ve had League Cup runs and played in some great stadiums, but we’ve finally got that big one. Liverpool is going to top it all.” Accrington have sold their entire 4,700-ticket allocation and the tie is of huge significance to the striker Josh Woods, a boyhood Liverpool fan whose reaction to the draw went viral and prompted a reply from Ibrahima Konaté. Liam Coyle is another Red who started out in Liverpool’s academy, while the management team of John Doolan and Ged Brannan are also from Liverpool. This is an FA Cup moment to cherish. Andy Hunter

Liverpool v Accrington Stanley, Saturday 12.15pm (all times GMT)

Brentford v Plymouth Argyle, Saturday 3pm

Bristol City v Wolverhampton Wanderers, Saturday 12pm

Chelsea v Morecambe, Saturday 3pm

Leeds v Harrogate Town, Saturday 5.45pm

Manchester City v Salford City, Saturday 5.45pm

Continue reading...

Twenty-one days after Everton set course for a new era called stability the search for their ninth permanent manager in nine years is under way. David Moyes, or whoever the new owners ultimately appoint, was handed a place in round four of the FA Cup plus a graphic demonstration of the task that lies ahead by a slender victory over League One opposition.

The Friedkin Group felt they had no option but to sack Sean Dyche after he informed them he had taken Everton as far as he could. Performances such as this suggest he may have had a point. Peterborough United rarely threatened to add an upset to Everton’s latest day of turmoil but, like many Premier League teams before them, they did a fair job of containing the royal blue threat. Beto, on paper the most expensive signing of the Dyche era, and Iliman Ndiaye, one of the few pluses, scored at the end of each half to edge Everton past Darren Ferguson’s side.

Continue reading...

Karl Robinson’s side have won six games in a row and travel to the Etihad with a chance to put themselves on the map

Salford City are in the middle of their finest spell as a Football League club on the pitch as they prepare for the biggest game in their history. The Ammies travel fewer than five miles on Saturday to face Manchester City in a pivotal spell that could shape their future.

Karl Robinson’s side have won six matches in a row without conceding to thrust them into the League Two automatic promotion spots and have reached the FA Cup third round for the first time. Salford won four promotions in five seasons in the aftermath of the Class of 92’s purchase a decade ago but have plateaued in the fourth tier since 2019. After three mid-table finishes and a playoff semi-final, Salford finished 20th last season and the 15-year ambition to reach the Championship by 2029 seems more fantastical than when Gary Neville announced it.

Continue reading...

Ashley Young hopes to line up against his son Tyler when Everton face Peterborough in the FA Cup on Thursday

Arsenal v Manchester United and Tamworth v Tottenham are two of the more arresting fixtures in the FA Cup third round, but Everton’s encounter with Peterborough has the potential to create history. At Goodison Park on Thursday there is a chance the hosts’ 39-year-old wing-back Ashley Young will find himself on the same pitch as his 18-year-old son, Tyler, a promising midfielder who signed for Posh in League One last summer.

“WOW … Dreams Might Come True #GoosebumpsMoment #YoungVsYoung,” wrote the former England international on X after last month’s draw.

Continue reading...

• Non-league side Tamworth to host Tottenham
• Liverpool v Accrington, Manchester City v Salford

FA Cup holders Manchester United enter the fray at next month’s third-round stage with a visit to record 14-time winners Arsenal, in a repeat of the 2005 final.

The draw was conducted at Old Trafford by former United strikers Mark Hughes and Dion Dublin and that formidable fixture drew groans from those present, the first of only two all-Premier League ties along with Aston Villa v West Ham. United’s Wembley victory in May was the 13th time they had lifted the trophy. Erik ten Hag, the winning manager that day, has since been replaced by Ruben Amorim.

Continue reading...

Decision to scrap FA Cup replays reopens discussion about what buckles next in an increasingly unsustainable calendar

Weston-super-Mare’s ground, the Optima Stadium, holds around 3,500 fans. It was last packed to the rafters when Doncaster Rovers arrived a decade ago, a convincing defeat hardly dampening the night’s magnitude. Had the clock stopped at 90 minutes in their FA Cup first round tie at Bristol Rovers on Saturday, a 1-1 draw would have guaranteed an occasion unmatched in their 137‑year history. The National League South side would have hosted a competitive derby against one of the local giants for the first time; broadcasters would almost certainly have been interested and the five‑figure windfall would not have harmed long-term ambitions to redevelop their home.

Instead the tie went to extra time and, as should be expected from a decently resourced League One team against flagging legs, Rovers pulled two goals clear. Weston-super-Mare’s time in the sun was over and, barring an unprecedented rise through the divisions, they will not hit radars again until whenever the FA Cup draw next falls in their favour. As a timely thread on X pointed out over the weekend, they were one of five non-league teams that missed out on a home replay for identical reasons. That would not have been the case before the Football Association’s decision in April that all FA Cup fixtures must be decided at the first time of asking, justified primarily by the imminent strain from expanded Champions League and Club World Cup competitions on those higher up the chain.

Continue reading...

• League Two side into second round after 1-0 victory
• AFC Wimbledon beat MK Dons once again

Harrogate pulled off an FA Cup upset as the League Two side beat Wrexham 1-0 to reach the second round.

Jack Muldoon scored the only goal of the game with a glancing header midway through the first half and the League One high-flyers Wrexham struggled to create clearcut chances to equalise.

Continue reading...

Taskmaster star and Chesham director shares his passion for non-league football as his club prepare for Lincoln

Ticket-holders to Alex Horne’s gig in Edinburgh on Monday evening be warned – there may be a very long interval. The comedian, and frontman of the Horne Section, did not know when he scheduled the tour that his football team would be playing a first-round FA Cup match on ITV.

With Chesham United kicking off against League One Lincoln half an hour before his own show begins, he is pondering how to keep up with the score. “Elton John apparently watched Watford’s FA Cup final on an iPad on his piano during a gig in Copenhagen,” he says. “But it’s mainly about the occasion, so it’s gutting I’m not there.”

Continue reading...

• National League side knock out League One Terriers
• Tonks’ long throw leads to own goal for non-league side

Tom Tonks’ long throw-in helped non-league Tamworth secure a famous FA Cup upset against the League One promotion hopefuls Huddersfield.

A Premier League side as recently as 2019, the West Yorkshire club suffered a humiliating first-round loss at the Lamb Ground on Friday evening in front of the TV cameras.

Continue reading...

Former player on taking inspiration from a hospital visitor after being paralysed, and his hopes for his National League South club in their FA Cup tie with Morecambe

Three days before the National League South side Worthing face Morecambe of League Two in the first round of the FA Cup, builders are putting the finishing touches to the main entrance of the club’s Woodside Road stadium. Nestled in a suburban neighbourhood of the west Sussex seaside town, the Rebels have enjoyed a rapid rise up the non-league pyramid and on Saturday will officially open their new North Stand that takes the capacity to 4,000.

For the owner, George Dowell, who was paralysed from the chest down in a car crash when he was 17, days after being named on the bench for Worthing’s first team, it will be a particularly proud moment. “It’s going to be amazing to see it,” he says. “We’re starting to get that ‘North Stand, give us a wave’ chant so the atmosphere is going all around the ground these days.”

Continue reading...

• League One leaders Birmingham to visit Sutton
• Weston-super-Mare head up to Bristol Rovers

MK Dons will host AFC Wimbledon in the first round of the FA Cup. The two sides will go head to head in the all-League Two affair at Stadium MK next month, having already faced each other in the league this season, Wimbledon winning 3-0.

The League One leaders Birmingham were drawn away at National League club Sutton, while Wrexham, second in the table behind Birmingham, will travel to Harrogate. Bristol Rovers will host their near neighbours Weston-super-Mare of the National League South.

Continue reading...

A derby victory over Manchester City at Wembley helped Erik ten Hag’s team gain some self-respect after recent domination by their closest rivals

• Sign up to Jonathan’s weekly newsletter here

Some days, you wonder just why the FA Cup seems so embattled. Saturday’s final felt like a throwback: a sunny spring day, a sense of subplots coming together in an occasion that genuinely mattered, drama on the pitch and ultimately a shock. Perhaps it wasn’t quite Sunderland beating Leeds in 1973 or Southampton beating Manchester United in 1976 (or even Wigan beating Manchester City in 2013). But United finished lower in the league this season (eighth) than Wimbledon (seventh) did when they beat champions Liverpool in 1988. The status and histories of the clubs shouldn’t disguise what a shock United’s victory over City was.

For United, it was a great occasion. For them a first FA Cup in eight years and just their second trophy in seven, a step-up on the League Cup they won under Erik ten Hag last season. But more than that, they stopped City becoming the first club to win the Double in successive seasons. It’s not just about succeeding; it’s about the failure of others, especially your closest rivals.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition

Continue reading...

Manchester United have endured crisis after crisis this season but their head coach will always have Wembley glory

It was one of the great shows of ego and defiance, pure theatre, pure Louis van Gaal. As another embattled Manchester United manager from the Netherlands found himself in the same position, it was impossible to ignore the echoes. Erik ten Hag’s delivery was different, more measured and understated. But, like Van Gaal before him, he had entered the arena for a fight. He made his punches count.

“I show you the Cup,” Van Gaal said in 2016 after leading United to victory against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final as he headed for the sack; he was informed of the decision 24 hours later. Van Gaal strode into the Wembley press conference room with the trophy, which he set down on the end of the desk before repositioning it bang in front of him after he took his seat.

Continue reading...