Bardon Hill Sports Through to The FA Cup Preliminary Round

After an exciting 3-2 victory over Arnold Town in the FA Cup extra Preliminary round yesterday, Bardon Hill Sports FC FA Cup reward is an away trip to Coalville Town who themselves won an exciting encounter, 3-2 against Barrow Town.

Click here for all of the FA Cup results, so far.

Tie to be played over the weekend of 28/29/30th August.


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The FA Cup Team to Follow Has Been Chosen.

Since the beginning of August there has been a 'fun' game to select a 'team to follow' in this year's FA Cup which begins tonight with the Extra Premliminary Round.

Due to an overwhelming number of votes (precisely NIL) it was down to the editor (ie me) to decide the match number and therefore the team to follow, all the way to Wembley to the FA Cup Final next May, 2010.

For your information and to prove there were no underhand tactics or 'backhanders' involved, the number chosen was 69 (my favourite number) which related to the match between Bardon Hill Sports and Arnold Town.

As Bardon Hill Sports is the Home team, they are the FA Cup team to follow until they get knocked out of the competition then their victors become the team to follow and so on and so, until the two finalists are known at Wembley.

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Pick A Number...

On Friday August 14th, the FA Cup, the greatest domestic Cup competition in the world, kicks off with over 400 teams taking part in the extra premliminary round dreaming that come May 2010 they might be one of the teams walking out at 'the home of football.'

For a bit of fun, I want to do a 'Road to Wembley' feature where I am inviting you (via the comments section) to pick a number between 1 - 203.

The number with the highest amount of votes will represent the HOME team who will be the first team picked for this fun adventure.

Once the selected team gets knocked out of the competition, I will follow the new team until that team gets eliminated and so forth and so forth, until the OUR team hopefully picks up the FA Cup in May 2010.

So you have until 12 midday Friday 14th August (UK Time) to vote for any number between 1 - 203. If you want to study a list of teams taking part - click here

If there are no votes cast or there is a tie, the editor's decision is final.

Shocking Berbatov Penalty

See for yourself. £30m, £100,000 per week - SHOCKING. They are not happy in ManURE land.

30th May the FA Cup Final will be between Chelsea and Everton. I bet the FA do not like that.

FA Cup Semi-Final Weekend

Both games are being played at Wembley.


First up is Chelsea v Arsenal on Saturday then on Sunday its ManUre v Everton.


For me the FA Cup Final is a Wembley occasion, not an occasion for the semi-finals.


Just goes to show how much the FA need the money to pay for Wembley Stadium.

The FA Cup 4th Round Finally Complete

The FA Cup 4th Round came to its conclusion this evening as Arsenal beat Cardiff City at The Emirates, 4-0.

Arsenal's scorers were Eduardo (2), Bendtner and Van Persie.

Arsenal now play Burnley at home in the 5th Round.

FA Cup 5th Round Draw

Both 4th Round games ended in draws this afternoon. Arsenal drew 0-0 in Cardiff against City and the Merseyside derby ended 1-1. The second 1-1 inside a week.


The draw for the 5th Round is as follows:

Sheffield Utd v Hull City

Watford v Chelsea

West Ham v Middlesbrough

Sunderland or Blackburn v Coventry

Derby or Nottm Forest v Manchester United

Swansea v Fulham

Liverpool or Everton v Doncaster or Aston Villa

Cardiff City or Arsenal v West Bromwich or Burnley

The FA Cup Is Upon Us.... 4th Rd Time

Did you know that there is a FA regulation that could see FA Cup replays a thing of the past?

'It is within FA regulations of the FA Cup that extra-time can be played in the first tie if the clubs have mutually agreed to play the extra 30 minutes should it be necessary.

'Permission is not required from the FA, just confirmation of the clubs' agreement in writing. Then they just need to inform the ref.'

In the first of the weekend's Cup-ties, Derby drew 1-1 with near rivals Nottingham Forest this evening. The game will be replayed a week on Wednesday.

Ouch, Ouch and More Ouch

OUCH - Chelsea's Joe Cole is out for the rest of the season after injuring his anterior cruciate ligament against Southend in the FA Cup Wednesday night.


OUCH - Real Madrid are charging top dollar for the pending meeting against Liverpool in the Champions League next month - £785 for ONE seat.


More OUCH - Beware. Julian Dicks, West Ham legend is back in football. He has taken up the manager's job at Wivenhoe Town who play in the Ridgeons Premier Division. Cross him at your peril.

Holiday

I am off to Florida in the morning (UK time) so don't expect too much action over the coming week.


With laptop in me case...... you will never know when I will pop up if at all.


So have a great week, its FA Cup weekend when all the BIG clubs join in to The Road to Wembley.


Will your team make it?

FA Cup 2nd Round - Weekend Shocks

What a weekend of FA Cup football.


Barrow started it all off beating Brentford on Friday night 2-1.


Blyth Spartans got a 0-0 draw at Bournemouth


Eastwood Town beat Wycombe Wanderers 2-0


Forest Green beat Rochdale 2-0


Histon beat Leeds United 1-0


Kettering got a 1-1 draw at Notts County.

Bad Week for Football

Firstly it's been a bad week if your team has been beaten.


Secondly, David Norris of Ipswich Town for his 'handcuff' celebration after he scored against Blackpool.


Thirdly, Chris Morgan's elbow on Barnsley's Ian Hume which left Hume with a fractured skull.


Lastly, the coin throwing incident at Stamford Bridge when Drogba threw a coin back into the Burnley fans - sincerley hope no one was hurt - Burnley have today announced they will track down the Burnley coin-thrower.


What a bad week


Wonder what will happen tonight at Tranmere when Rovers take on Accrington Stanley, FA Cup 1st Round replay?

I Love the FA Cup

I love the thought of the David's taking on the Goliath's and the David's ripping those blonde locks out of Goliath's head.


When I was a kid I grew up loving FA Cup Final day, regardless of who was playing.


Me and my mates use to rotate our houses every year (for years) to gather round and watch the final.


There were some great finals, there were rubbish finals.


We use to have crisps, peanuts, sandwiches, hot-dogs, burgers and coke (before we were old enough to drink) and it used to be a 'real' football party.


Mates, football and FA CUP Final day.


The magic of the FA CUP has not left me since those times. I just love the FA Cup.


Year after year you are guaranteed shocks and surprises.


Take last year's competition for example - who would have thought that Havant & Waterlooville would go to mighty Liverpool and take the lead TWICE - 1-0 and 2-1?


Who would have thought Barnsley would go to Liverpool and win?


Who would have thought Barnsley would have beaten Chelsea and get to the semi-finals of the greatest Cup competition in the World?


I JUST LOVE THE FA CUP

UEFA CUP 3-0 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Not a Champions League winner this week amongst the English challengers: Chelsea dismally lost, Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool all drew.


In the UEFA Cup however (amongst the flares and fog of White Hart Lane, see above) Tottenham beat Zagreb 4-0, Man City beat Twente Enschede 3-2 and Aston Villa beat Slavia Prague 1-0.


This weekend the best domestic Cup Competition in the World kicks-off - THE FA CUP - It's the first round proper and the first game of the 1st Round is between Leeds United and Northampton at Elland Road, kick-off 7.45pm.

The FA Cup

So the Carling Cup played its first round last midweek and on Saturday over 100 matches were played in the extra preliminary round of the FA Cup.

Yep the FA Cup has started its long road to Wembley, clubs after the trophy that Portsmouth won last May.

Click here for the full list of results.

The preliminary round matches will be played on Saturday 30th August. Click here for a full list of fixtures.

Filling the Void

Cast your mind back to January 2008 - Goodison Park, Everton FC

Visitors: Oldham Athletic -FA Cup 3rd Round

Vid 1 is the winning goal
Vid 2 is the fans celebrations













Irony of it all. Oldham got knocked out by Huddersfield in the next round - Huddersfield got beat by Chelsea in the 5th Round.

My mate up north was gutted when the fifth round draw was made and I told him who Chelsea had drawn.

Still there is always another season.

DO YOU REMEMBER THIS GOAL?

Roberto Di Matteo the scorer of the fastest FA Cup Final goal (43 seconds) has taken over as manager at newly promoted MK Dons.

Roberto takes his first managerial job, without any experience BUT with the qualifications, from Paul Ince who has gone to Blackburn Rovers and who has been given dispensation by the Premier League to obtain his qualifications within two years.

When Robbie scored that famous goal at Wembley I was at work that day but I was lucky to catch it live on the telly. I was lucky however to see Robbie score one of his first goals for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, ironically against Middlesbrough.

Against St Gallen of Switzerland in the UEFA, Robbie wasn't so lucky. He leg was so badly injured in a non-descript tackle that he was forced to retire from professional football some two years later.

In between then and now, Robbie has been busying himself with media work - Chelsea TV, Sky and the like, plus studying hard for his football qualifications and his hard work has paid off.

MK Dons owner Pete Winkelman saw something in Robbie and has taken him on in front of 40 or so more experienced candidates than himself.

Winkelman brought Ince to MK Dons from the northern outpost of Macclesfield and look what a job Ince had acheived at Moss Rose before he left.

Ince has left a legacy at MK Stadium. Johnstone Paint Cup Winners and League Two Champions in his first and only season.

Robbie you have a lot to live up to...... but you ARE qualified!!!

A Tale of Two Nigerians

ODEJAYI VILLIAN

KANU HERO

Two Nigerian footballers plying their trade for Portsmouth and Barnsley respectively have 'stole' the FA Cup headlines this weekend when both FA Cup semi-final finals (sponsored by E.ON) were played at the 'new' Wembley for the very first-time.

Firstly Portsmouth's Kanu scored the only goal in their win against WBA on Saturday, controversary again that there was a handball in the build-up to the goal.

Secondly in today's semi-final the hero of Barnsley's battling quarter-final 1-0 win over Chelsea Kayode Odejayi, squandered a clear-cut chance when on a breakway and on his own, with only Cardiff's Enckleman to beat, beat Enckleman but also beat Enckleman's left-hand post.

How he missed only Odejayi knows and no wonder Barnsley's manager Simon Davey got the 'shrinks' in during the week to sort out Odejayi's head. Its obvious they didn't do a very good job!!!

So without extra-time and without penalties, both cup-ties were settled inside 90 mins by the same score, 1-0 and we now know that Portsmouth will take on Cardiff City at Wembley on Saturday 17th May 2008.

I wrote earlier about the Wembley 'corporates' bothering to turn up to both semi-final games - and they did in style. Saturday's game attracted a crowd of over 83,000 and todays crowd was just under 83,000.

So well done!

So now both Portsmouth and Cardiff fans will have to do battle to get those priceless FA CUP Final tickets when last year's finallists Chelsea and Man Utd only received 25,000 each!!

Saturday's 3pm Kick Offs - LIVE SCORES!!!

The first FA Cup semi-final this weekend between Portsmouth and WBA ended Portsmouth 1-0 WBA, in the Premiership it finished Arsenal 1-1 Liverpool.

Scunthorpe 1-1 Sheff Wednesday in the Championship FINAL SCORE.

Full LIVE score service from 3pm (BST) will appear in the comments.

Look out for Chelsea at Man City, The Real Latics at Swindon and Ebbsfleet Utd at home to Woking

What a Great Weekend to Look Foward Too!!

Its FA Cup Semi-Final weekend and who would have thought that there would be only ONE Premiership team in the last four.

Both games will be played at Wembley and first up is:

WBA v Portsmouth - kick off 12.15pm

Then straight after from 3pm, there is a full League and Scottish programme. All scores including the first FA Cup Semi-Final will be LIVE on this blog and I WILL try and 'LIVE BLOG' the game at Wembley.

So if you can't get to a TV, radio or you are a wireless internet user on the move, let me keep you up to date with all the action tomorrow, Saturday from about 12.15pm (BST).

Then on Sunday from 4pm - Barnsley (the conquerors of Liverpool and Chelsea) go head to head against Cardiff City. Also in action on Sunday in the Premiership is Middlesbrough v Man Utd.