FA Cup News
Arthur Okonkwo was the hero of the shootout as the Championship team downed Forest
Big noise from both sets of fans on a chilly night in what used to be known as Clwyd.
Sean Dyche, of course, is wearing shorts as he carries out his pre-match duties.
Continue reading...National League South side face Grimsby in the third round and those at the club are desparate for the ride to continue
Weeks on from the FA Cup third-round draw, inside Weston-super-Mare’s modest clubhouse at their stadium a couple of miles from the holiday haven beachfront, there is still a tinge of incredulity at what might have been. Bridget Bolland, operations manager and one of the mini-army of staff who keep the part-time sixth-tier side ticking, relays how, normally, visiting teams have their post-match meal on a bench beside the skittles alley, sausage and chips usually the offering. The thought of Bruno Fernandes or Erling Haaland tucking in here is yet to fully evaporate.
But the draw meant Weston, the promotion-chasing National League South side who have reached this stage of the Cup for the first time, have been preparing for a different challenge: a tie at fourth-tier Grimsby Town, who beat Manchester United in the Carabao Cup in August. “As a United fan, I hated them that night,” says Weston’s manager, Scott Rogers. “I was going mad at the TV. But I’m hoping we can do something similar. There’s always an upset in the Cup: why can’t it be us?”
Continue reading...Macclesfield and Weston-super-Mare carry the non-league hopes while fringe players need to seize their chances
Silly goals conceded, chances missed, a lead surrendered and points squandered against relegation fodder. On the face of things, Manchester United have changed manager but nothing else. The reality is different. They started slowly at Burnley, settling into a 4-2-3-1 formation that suits them – and pretty much every other team – far better than Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 before, midway through the first half, they started to play. The deployment of Bruno Fernandes close to the opposition goal, along with a wide player, Patrick Dorgu, playing on his natural side, meant Benjamin Sesko was, for the first time, provided with decent service. Then, following Jaidon Anthony’s equaliser, Darren Fletcher’s side risked defeat by going all out for the win – one nearly achieved through the timely introduction of Shea Lacey, a richly talented 18-year-old. Brighton will present far stiffer opposition but, for the first time in a long time, United are doing what United are meant to do. Daniel Harris
Manchester United v Brighton, Sunday 4.30pm (all GMT)
Macclesfield v Crystal Palace, Saturday 12.15pm
Grimsby v Weston-super-Mare, Saturday 5.45pm
Manchester City v Exeter, Saturday 3pm
Continue reading...League One club asked for greater share of gate receipts
Manchester City not changing their standard club policy
Manchester City will not offer Exeter extra money from Saturday’s third-round FA Cup tie. The financially troubled League One club this week revealed they had asked the Premier League club for a greater proportion of the gate receipts as a “statement of solidarity”.
Exeter, whose supporters’ trust is the club’s majority shareholder, will take 8,000 fans to a sold-out Etihad Stadium to face the seven-time FA Cup winners. Each club gets 45% of gate receipts, with the other 10% taken by the Football Association, in line with competition rules. It is estimated ticket sales will generate between £250,000 and £400,000 for Exeter.
Continue reading...The Guardian sport photographer selects his favourite images he has taken this year and recalls the stories behind them
This is a selection of some of my favourite pictures taken at events I’ve covered this year, quite a few of which haven’t been published before. Several have been chosen for their news value, others purely for their aesthetic value, while some are here just because there’s a nice story behind them.
Continue reading...National League North side Macclesfield have drawn the holders Crystal Palace, while Exeter City travel to Manchester City
Crouch and Cole are in the clubhouse … we are getting closer.
TNT are hosting the draw at Brackley Town before they face Burton Albion.
Continue reading...National League South side into third round for first time
Cheltenham come from behind to beat Buxton 6-2
Louis Britton scored twice as Weston-super-Mare booked their spot in the third round of the FA Cup for the first time with a 2-0 win at fellow National League South side Chelmsford. To compound Chelmsford’s misery, Taylor Clark was shown a red card late on, 13 minutes after coming off the bench, for a dangerous high tackle.
Cheltenham avoided a Cup shock after twice coming from a goal behind before scoring four times in the final half-hour to see off non-league Buxton 6-2.
Continue reading...Linney scores three as Carlisle seal extra-time shock
Boreham Wood upset League Two strugglers Crawley
The substitute Regan Linney hit a sensational hat-trick as the National League side Carlisle stunned Reading of League One with a remarkable 3-2 extra-time win in the FA Cup first round. Linney struck twice in second-half added time to force an additional period after Lewis Wing and Mark O’Mahony put the hosts in control before completing his treble – and the comeback – in the 94th minute.
Fellow fifth-tier club Gateshead upset the League One high fliers AFC Wimbledon with a 2-0 away victory. Goals either side of half-time from Kain Adom and Fenton John made the difference against the Dons, who sit sixth in the third tier.
Continue reading...Arsenal were the best team in the country in 1998 but needed a replay and penalties to beat second-tier Port Vale
As Arsenal prepare to take on Port Vale in the League Cup third round on Wednesday night, fans making their way from London to Stoke-on-Trent will be hoping history can repeat itself. Twenty-seven years ago Arsenal supporters – including this writer – made the same journey at the start of a cup run that would end in celebrations. But the Wembley sunshine seemed a million miles away in January 1998.
The first of Arsène Wenger’s seven FA Cups as Arsenal manager was far from straightforward. In all, Arsenal played nine matches on their way to lifting the trophy, a run that involved three replays, two penalty shootouts and narrow victories over second-tier teams. The third round tie against Port Vale was a microcosm of Arsenal’s road to Wembley.
Continue reading...Thousands turned out on the wet streets of south London to catch a glimpse of the club’s first major trophy
Crystal Palace supporters had waited a lifetime for this moment. When the two buses carrying Oliver Glasner and his FA Cup winners rounded the corner of Holmesdale Road, red and blue smoke from flares filled the air as thousands of south Londoners showed their appreciation, with several shedding tears again.
In the days since Eberechi Eze’s winner against Manchester City clinched Palace’s first trophy, a sense of disbelief has been the overwhelming feeling for fans who are excitedly contemplating a foray into Europe next season.
Continue reading...Oliver Glasner believes that Crystal Palace can avoid becoming a “one-hit wonder” after winning the FA Cup by continuing to make steady progress and not doing “crazy things”.
Palace’s victory against Manchester City secured the club’s first major trophy and entry into the Europa League. Glasner revealed he had left the post-match celebrations at Wembley before the club chair, Steve Parish, was captured on video performing karaoke at a local bar and that he had missed Austria’s Eurovision song contest victory on the same evening because he was with family. “It must be a great song,” he said.
Continue reading...Whether fans were celebrating, saying goodbye to an old home or remembering those no longer with us, the game’s power was on show this weekend
What was striking on Saturday, after Crystal Palace had beaten Manchester City to win the FA Cup, was how many people were in tears. The camera roamed the stands, capturing the images of Palace fans in disbelief after winning their first ever major trophy. Some were hugging those next to them, some waved their arms incoherently and others just stared, overcome. But a significant proportion were sobbing. Soccer can often seem an angry game, with crowds fuelled by rage; this was something very different, very hard to explain.
Palace’s pre-match tifo had shown an image of a father hugging his two sons in the stand at Old Trafford after Darren Ambrose had scored a 35-yard drive there for Palace in a League Cup quarter-final in 2011-12. It turned out the two lads were among the Palace fans at Wembley and that their father had passed away in the intervening 13 years. They were, needless to say, also in tears.
Continue reading...Eberechi Eze is too good for Palace, Morgan Gibbs-White is pushing for a call-up and is 2025 the year of the underdog?
Why would your fan-favourite player, scorer of That Historic Wembley Goal, in peak form under an excellent manager want to leave? Why would anyone be OK with it? How is this logical? Crystal Palace are now good enough to have Eberechi Eze in the team. Eberechi Eze is also too good to stay at Crystal Palace. Both of these things seem to be true. Oliver Glasner-era Palace are a seriously potent, organised and attractive team. But Eze’s progress is something else. At times during his early Palace career there was a sense of a slightly loose late-developer. His skill level was always exceptional. His use of it now is next-level, his finishing cold and his physique buffed up. Eze does not really have a ceiling. He could play for any team in Europe. But he is also 26 years old with two years left on his contract, and Palace have a model based on development with the likes of Romain Esse ready for a shot. There does not always have to be downside. Selling the man who made the thing happen can still be best for everyone. Barney Ronay
Continue reading...Steve Parish has made it clear that his FA Cup-winning manager, Oliver Glasner, will be at Crystal Palace next season. Tottenham are prominent among Glasner’s admirers and they will put him on their shortlist if they decide to part company with Ange Postecoglou at the end of the season. Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig are also interested in the man who led Palace past Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday to the club’s first major trophy.
Parish, the Palace chair and co-owner, said he wanted to extend Glasner’s contract, which is scheduled to expire in June 2026. As Parish continued to savour the cup win that will bring Europa League football to Selhurst Park next season, materially changing his club as a proposition, he essentially told those who might try to lure Glasner away that they were wasting their time.
Continue reading...There was a sense of disbelief at Wembley as the team I support ended a wait of almost 120 years to win a major trophy
When Marc Guéhi and Joel Ward went up to collect the FA Cup, we were there. Although it still seems like a dream. The sense of disbelief Crystal Palace supporters felt when the full-time whistle at Wembley ended their wait to win a major trophy will probably take a few more days to fade away given it’s taken almost 120 years to become a reality. But with most of the 30,000 wearing red and blue having travelled from south London in hope rather than expectation, finally, it was our moment.
After an agonising 10 minutes of stoppage time that seemed to take an eternity, the emotions of defeat in Palace’s two previous FA Cup finals came pouring out. Everywhere you looked there were grown men – including me and the former Guardian stalwart Dominic Fifield – moved to tears. The comedian Mark Steel just kept shaking his head, unable to comprehend what had just transpired. It even spread to the royal box, where the chair, Steve Parish, who had been pictured with his head in his hands moments earlier, was greeted with a bear hug from Palace’s largest shareholder, John Textor.
Continue reading...