FA Cup Third Round Results 13th January Part 2

Coventry City 1-2 Portsmouth (Third Round Replay, after extra time)
I’ll always wonder why Freddy Eastwood didn’t start this match. I’m sure there was a good reason, maybe he had a knock, maybe he was ill again, maybe he was a naughty boy this week. But it’s always a shame to lose in the Cup, especially when you’re arguably the better side. Maybe if Freddy had come on from the start he’d have got a hat-trick and Coventry would be giant-killers. But you can never tell in football. Maybe he’d have scored a hat-trick of own goals and got himself sent off. Portsmouth’s first goal came in the final minutes of normal time – Coventry came that close. Then their extra time winner came in stoppage time too. Is anything more heartbreaking? Well perhaps yes. See below.

Derby County 1-1 Millwall (Third Round Replay, Derby win on penalties)
Penalties are always heartbreaking. Sometimes they can be heartbreaking even if you win. Derby however probably just felt relieved. The game stayed goalless until the 108th minute and the first ninety minutes were, for an FA Cup match, fairly dull. It wasn’t until extra time that the game came alive – with Millwall (in my biased opinion) looking the better side. Even after Derby’s equaliser, Millwall looked the more likely to grab the win. But it wasn’t to be, the game went to penalties, Derby scored five and Millwall missed one. I was hoping Jason Price might come on at the end to take a penalty but I can’t really blame Kenny Jackett for bringing on penalty-taker Alan Dunne instead. Robbie Savage was among Derby’s scorers. The commentator said something about probably every football fan who isn’t a Derby fan wanted Robbie to miss. And because it was Millwall, my dad's team, I wanted Robbie to miss too. Just this once.

Queen’s Park Rangers 2-3 Sheffield United (Third Round Replay)
When Sheffield United’s 3-0 lead became 3-2, I did wonder if we were going to see another Cardiff v Peterborough. But luckily QPR didn’t have quite enough time to do that. (Nothing against QPR but Ched Evans was playing for Sheffield United). BBC Sport got me all excited by crediting Ched with QPR’s third goal but then they changed their mind and gave it to Richard Cresswell instead. But never mind Ched, there’s always the next round.