FA Cup Fifth Round Results 13th February

Chelsea 4-1 Cardiff City
Cardiff did manage to equalise but then Chelsea went and scored loads of other goals and it spoiled it a bit. There were times when they seemed to match Chelsea but in the end you could tell which one was in the Premier League. Chelsea did play what you might call a weakened team but it still had Didier Drogba in so it wasn’t actually very weak at all.
Aaron Wildig played almost the whole game for Cardiff, only being substituted in the final minute and despite the result, he really did do an amazing job in dealing with a Chelsea midfield including Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack. And he did it pretty much on his own too as the other central midfielder clearly wasn’t fully fit. Someone make him eligible to play for Wales before England get him!
Darcy Blake started on the bench but came off in the second half. Adam Matthews had to stay on the bench though and contrary to reports, there were no other young players in the matchday squad.

Derby County 1-2 Birmingham City
For a while it looked like Derby might actually do it. Even when Birmingham equalised in the73rd minute it didn’t seem too serious and when the scores were still level at 92 minutes, maybe Derby relaxed a little bit. And before they know it that sneaky Liam Ridgewell (yes the one who denied Gareth Bale his second Premier League win in his whole life) got Birmingham a winner.
Robbie Savage – who had a god all-round performance and led his team well - came very, very close to scoring for Derby. It was a great strike and it could easily have given Derby an equaliser if keeper Joe Hart had been a bit less well-placed – and a bit less brilliant. Robbie also caused chaos with a free kick and the Birmingham supporters, who chanted Robbie’s name in a less than complimentary fashion, only seemed to inspire the former Birmingham player all the more. He says he’d rather be a pundit than manager Wales but you know, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Manchester City 1-1 Stoke City
Manchester City were again denied the services of Craig Bellamy, who is still having trouble with his knee, not to mention a twatty Manchester United fan who decided to beat him up, what’s that all about? Hate him when he’s on the pitch (though don’t throw coins at him) but off the pitch he’s another human being. With Carlos Tevez also missing, it didn’t look easy for Man City.
Ryan Shawcross had one of his very rare bad moments (I actually don’t remember the last one although I do try to forget these things) when he accidentally provided the assist for Man City’s opener but for the most part he was looking very solid, as was Danny Collins when he was given a rare run-out in the second half. More worryingly for Stoke, they lost the creative Matthew Etherington just fourteen minutes into the match with his replacement Liam Lawrence himself needing to be replaced by Rory Delap before half-time. Poor little Rory was forced to dry the ball on his football shirt, no towel being evident at Manchester City.

Reading 2-2 West Bromwich Albion
West Brom perhaps unsurprisingly proved tougher customers than Premier League Burnley and like Liverpool they were able to take Reading to a replay. A 73rd minute goal from substitute Simon Church – a good one too, after missing his first attempt, he was on hand to pick up the rebound and slam that into the net - put Reading in front, only for West Brom to find an equaliser fourteen minutes later.