Carling Cup Results 26th October 2010

Ipswich Town 3-1 Northampton Town
Ipswich would be forgiven for feeling slightly worried about Northampton after what they did to Liverpool. And it was Northampton who took the lead. Although Ipswich did manage to bring the score back to 2-1 by half-time, there was still a chance Northampton would score an equaliser… and Northampton only beat Liverpool on penalties. Luckily for Ipswich, the winner came finally (in the 88th minute, after 44 minutes of stress), Ipswich were back to winning ways and Northampton were able to turn their attention back to winning games in League Two, which might be a lot less romantic than giant-killings but it probably is more important.
Troy Brown was on the bench for Ipswich.
Paul Parry was on the bench for Northampton.

Leicester City 1-4 West Bromwich Albion
The score makes it look worse than it actually was although Leicester’s only goal wasn’t scored by one of their own players but by a West Brom half-time substitute. Leicester were on equal terms for nine minutes and remained in the game, at 2-1, for some seventeen minutes after that. (It might not seem like much but nine minutes can seem like forever in football.)
Andy King played the first 57 minutes for Leicester, at which point he was replaced by last year’s top scorer.
Boaz Myhill got a rare start in goal for West Brom and can’t really be blamed if his team-mates suddenly decided to start scoring against him. It would have been the last thing he was expecting.

Manchester United 3-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolves came so close to taking this match to extra time, with the club joint-bottom In the Premier League table taking on the club in joint-second at Old Trafford. True, Manchester United made eleven changes but that included Bébé and substitute Javier Hernandez, both of whom scored. A weakend side? I’m not sure.
Wolves were fined for making eleven changes in a Cup match last season so they compromised by making only seven changes. Perhaps with a full-strength team, Wolves could have won it but the players who haven’t been starting can sometimes be all the hungrier, and we all know what hungry wolves are like. And what is full-strength anyway? Your eleven best players and the eleven players with the biggest chance of beating Manchester United won’t always be the same team. West Brom were unlucky in that Man Utd were far from weakened in the striking department. I wonder if this Bébé has any Welsh blood.
Wayne Hennessey started for Wolves and acquitted himself well although he was unfortunately in the wrong place when the winning goal deflected in off his body. David Jones got ninety minutes and was one of the four players who started at the weekend but Dave Edwards was dropped to the bench.

Wigan Athletic 2-0 Swansea City
Roberto Martinez returned to Swansea City – but as the manager of their opponents, Wigan. It’s fair to say the Swansea fans were very aware of his presence and let him know of it in a less than friendly manner. Swansea could have taken the lead after 9 minutes but their goal was ruled out for offside (wrongly I think but it’s hard to be 100% sure, even with the benefit of a pause button) and it was Wigan who took the lead some forty minutes later. Wigan didn’t make sure of the win until the third minute of stoppage time, and even then it came from the penalty spot.
David Cotterill was restored to Swansea’s starting line-up and Joe Allen was an unused substitute but a number of players were rested, including Neil Taylor and loads of others I haven’t noticed because of my Cardiff roots. Ashley Williams wasn’t rested except probably in the literal sense as he had concussion.