Buzzin Football

The FA Cup 3rd Round began on Friday night when Liverpool came from a goal down to thrash Oldham 5-1.  But the tie of the round was always going to be Manchester City at home to Manchester United.  Fierce rivals who happened to be the best two teams in England right now, according to the Premier League table.  Add to this the small matter of revenge for a humiliating 6-1 drubbing earlier in the season and you might start to understand why Sir Alex Ferguson was going to pull out all the stops to win this match.  Mind games alone were not enough; and after the last two shock defeats to Blackburn Rovers & Newcastle United, Ferguson made the unprecedented move to plead to Paul Scholes to come out of retirement!

The game lived up to expectations and was full of goals and incidents.  Vincent Kompany’s two-footed challenge was in every way a fantastic, clean tackle.  He won the ball and didn’t touch the player.

However, both feet were off the floor.  To the letter of the law, that is a red card offence.  Ridiculous though it may be, the referee had to make a split second decision, and got it spot on.  Even though a red card is unwarranted for such a clean challenge that in no way was reckless or dangerous.

Man City were clearly shaken at losing their influential captain in the 12th minute not long after conceding an early headed goal from Wayne Rooney.

Ferguson and Manchester United fans were probably looking to avenge the thrashing from earlier in the season when they found themselves 3-0 at half-time.  But in the second-half Manchester City showed how far they have come as a team rather than a group of individual players and fought back to within an inch of saving the game.

A brilliant free-lick from Aleksandar Kolarov gave the blue half of Manchester hope while Paul Scholes was introduced to tighten up the midfield.  Unfortunately a lack of match fitness showed, and when Aguerro scored a second, it was City that looked the more likely to score again.

It ended 3-2 to Manchester United who will now face Liverpool in the Fourth Round.

Paulo Di Canio’s Swindon Town caused the upset of the round as they beat Premier League Wigan; and when Sam Allardyce announced a weakened West Ham team, it wasn’t a surprise to see League One promotion contenders Sheffield Wednesday win through to the next round.

FA Cup 4th Round Draw

•    Brighton or Wrexham v Newcastle
•    Sunderland v Middlesbrough
•    Dagenham & Redbridge or Millwall v Southampton
•    Hull City v Crawley Town
•    MK Dons or QPR v Chelsea
•    West Brom v Norwich
•    Blackpool v Sheffield Wednesday
•    Arsenal or Leeds v Aston Villa
•    Stevenage v Notts County
•    Watford v Tottenham
•    Liverpool v Manchester United
•    Derby v Stoke
•    Everton v Fulham
•    Macclesfield or Bolton v Swansea
•    Sheffield United v Birmingham or Wolves
•    Nottingham Forest or Leicester v Swindon

All matches to be played over the weekend of the 28th & 29th January.  Too soon for a Suarez v Evra rematch. Though don’t be too surprised if Sir Alex Ferguson is calling Edwin Van Der Sar & Peter Schmeichel.