FA Cup Fifth Round Replay Results 24th February

Aston Villla 3-1 Crystal Palace
The Championship side gave a very good account of themselves (although it did threaten to turn into a penalty shoot-out at times) but it’s Villa who go through to the next round. James Collins was rested for this match, possibly because of the head injury he suffered in the last match but maybe just because even the best players need a rest sometimes.

Stoke City 3-1 Manchester City
After a stalemate in the first match, Stoke and Man City faced one another again in the League, where a Ryan Shawcross goal was wrongly disallowed, denying Stoke a win.
This time, the home side got what they deserved – and so did Ryan. His 95th minute goal put Stoke into the lead after a throw from Rory Delap (I wish he was Welsh) which had the Manchester City players rooted to the spot in terror. Ryan needed only the smallest headed touch to get the ball over the line. Ryan also got Emmanuel Adebayor sent off but I’m sure that was an accident.
It’s just a shame Ryan doesn’t want to play for Wales. I can kind of understand though. Maybe he loves England like I love Wales. And he’s Welsh enough for me to want him to play for the country he loves.
But the sending-off left City with the unfit Craig Bellamy as the only striker in their squad. Craig did score Manchester City’s equaliser but in the end it was no more than a consolation goal. Not that it could have been much of a celebration. Danny Collins was part of Stoke’s strong defence.

Tottenham 4-0 Bolton Wanderers
Technically it was two apiece but Bolton seemed to get a little bit confused about which net they were meant to be putting it in. Gareth Bale was again on fine form, making some good overlapping runs as well as getting an assist for the second of Bolton’s own goals. Sam Ricketts played the full game for Bolton and he didn’t get the other own goal.

West Bromwich Albion 2-3 Reading
West Brom took the lead twice but after Reading got their second equaliser in the third minute of stoppage time, West Brom discovered they were no better than Liverpool. Simon Church overcame an injury to play 103 minutes for Reading. BBC Sport didn’t credit him with the assist but the scorer of the goal did and that’s how it looked when I was watching so he got an assist.