FA Cup Results 8th January 2011 Third Round (Part Two)

Coventry City 2-1 Crystal Palace
Both these teams are in the Championship and form often doesn’t matter where the FA Cup is concerned – and it very nearly didn’t in this match, with a late penalty save needed to prevent Palace from taking the match to a replay. Coventry travel to Birmingham City in the next round.
Freddy Eastwood made it three goals in three games for Coventry, also picking up the assist for their second goal.
Andy Dorman started for Palace and came close to scoring. Lewis Price was on the bench.

Doncaster Rovers 2-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Only a late equaliser prevented Wolves from being the victim of a cupset but as it was only an equaliser, and with Wolves probably more focused on survival than the FA Cup, the cupset could yet happen. The winner of the reply will play either Stoke City or Cardiff City. The second one, I hope.
A John Oster header was the assist for Doncaster’s second goal. He was also involved in a worrying incident involving a red-carded Wolves player but I’m hoping Mick McCarthy was mistaken about John’s role in it.
Some reports said Wayne Hennessey didn’t play due to injury but as he was on the bench and this was an FA Cup match, I think it’s probably more likely he was rested. Dave Edwards kept his place in the starting line-up but he suffered a hamstring injury and was substituted after just 28 minutes . His replacement, David Jones, came close to a goal but his shot went over the bar.

Fulham 6-2 Peterborough United
Fulham ensured they weren’t going to be embarrassed by putting six past League One Peterborough. Some fans might be worried by the fact that their team let in two goals but as one was a penalty and one was an exceptional strike (not to mention that Fulham weren’t playing their first-choice keeper), maybe there isn’t too much cause for concern. Clean sheet or not, Fulham’s win was emphatic and well-deserved. Maybe they can do the same against Tottenham Hotspur in the fourth round.
Fulham keeper David Stockdale had to be at his best to deny Peterborough’s Arron Davies early on.
Simon Davies missed an early chance against his former club Peterborough and was substituted at halt-time – hopefully this was to rest him rather than because he was injured/in Mark Hughes’ bad books for missing.

Huddersfield Town 2-0 Dover Athletic
Two early goals in two minutes from Huddersfield were enough for them to beat Dover Athletic, who have had a great FA Cup run and also played well in this game too but they were unable to break Huddersfield down, although they did come close, also working hard to ensure Huddersfield were limited to just the two goals. Dover miss out on a potential trip to the Emirates but maybe Leeds will win the replay and I’m sure Huddersfield won’t be too disappointed if they do.
Adam Birchall, who must surely still be the FA Cup’s top scorer, was unable to add to his eleven goals but with 29 for Dover so far this season, he surely won’t be playing non-league football forever.

Lincoln City 3-4 Hereford United (second round)
Seven goals were scored and it could have been either side who scored the winning goal but in the end it went to Hereford – who were probably especially glad to avoid a replay as they tend to struggle at home. Hereford’s third round match against Wycombe Wanderers is also away and if they get through to the fourth round, they will face giant-killers Sheffield Wednesday away.
Hereford opened the scoring with Lincoln then going 2-1 ahead before Hereford took a 3-2 lead, with Stuart Fleetwood scoring the second and third goals, only for Lincoln to equalise again five minutes later. Stuart then set up Matthieu Manset to score his second and Hereford’s fourth and the away side hung on, despite losing Ryan Green to his second red card of the season after the defender received two yellow cards. This was his third match since returning from his last suspension.

Millwall 1-4 Birmingham City
Millwall had 53% of the possession, almost the same number of shots on target, considerably more off-target, and won 8 corners to Birmingham’s 0. But it was the Premier League side who took their chances to set up a fourth round tie with another Championship team, Coventry City. Darren Carter, Jason Puncheon and Ashley Grimes all found the net but as former Millwall loanees Carter and Puncheon are now back with their parent clubs and Grimes is still out on loan, this didn’t do Millwall any good at all. Millwall miss out on the chance to host Coventry City in the fourth round.
Steve Morison did his best to mount a comeback for Millwall and arguably should have scored three: one from a one-on-one situation, one from a penalty which he missed, and one from a goal that was wrongly disallowed. Maybe Steve is still feeling the affects of the flu that kept him out of the win over Crystal Palace last weekend and clearly hampered him during Millwall’s midweek fixture against Derby County..