The magic of the FA Cup. Congratulations to Middlesbrough and Bradford for slaying the dragons..... Former Hornet Mark Yeates tapped in the fourth for the Bantams in a result that will please the majority of the country.
Depending on the draw Van Gaal will probably be under even more pressure to win the Cup now. Liverpool being held by Bolton (we play them on 5th round day) atm.
So Tottenham, Chelsea, Man City and Southampton all went out today. Man Utd and Liverpool have both been taken to replays by lower league opposition. It's down to Arsenal and West Ham to win - if neither of them do, then none of the current top 8 will have won. Already, 6 out of 8 failing to win is surprising given that most favourites won in the 3rd round. The results today almost make up for a lack of upsets in the previous round.
Yes I'm glad we were able to chalk up 3 points today while most of our rivals have lost matches in the last 7 days, and those rivals now have an extra round to play as well. This all suits me fine .
What a weekend for the Cup. Especially delighted for Bradford. Just watched their goals and they 'out-Chelsead' Chelsea for the 4th one especially. From the highlights Stead looked exceptional for them today.
I really hope that you were not trying to be clever with your post, because if you were........................:smiley-sport021:
This kind of sensationalised junk on the BBC website home page annoys me: So you click on it wondering what heinous unsporting act the Bradford manager did to Jose and it turns out he just declined to take part in his mind games by shaking hands 4 minutes before the end of the match. Hardly a 'gesture' is it? His team have just beaten Chelsea at home and the headline BBC Sport article is about that? Pathetic.
It certainly is. And yet again a small minority of Chelsea fans let themselves down again with their chants and this item on twitter:
Always going to get that sort of idiot on Twitter (and other social media) Even today's games despite the fact they sort of went to form (well maybe not Villa scoring!) were pretty tight.
I hope that absolute ****** on twitter got a shedload of abuse for that. Shame, too, because there were a number of Chelsea fans who were surprisingly gracious in their comments on the Bradford forum after the match.
I know the TV schedulers are chasing the upsets, but really, leaving us with Rotherham v Stoke as the last game on a Monday night is a poor effort. Have Monday night viewing figures got that bad that they can show anything old dog****egame now?
Good 5th round draw for our promotion rivals, Derby home to Reading - I'd be surprised if they lose that, so that's another match to pile up. Middlesbrough at Arsenal, who knows what will happen and how it affects their season.
Man U are getting a nice tour of the lower leagues.if they beat Cambridge. Can see Bradford winning their home tie against Sunderland/Fulham.
BBC games for the 5th round announced. Guess which rarely seen Manchester-based team they've chosen to televise? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31020145 This will be their 45th televised FA Cup match in succession.
The TV games are just laughable. Do Bradford get some coverage? No. We have Villa v Leicester West Brom v West Ham WOW. I can't wait.
Yeah Bradford's chairman has been very scathing of the decision. Certainly West Brom v West Ham has zzzzzz written all over it but I suppose the 'ammers bring with them a comparatively large fan base.
I don't want to watch a match between two bang average premier league teams unless it's the quarter final onwards. I get to see that every week on Sky. I want to see an intriguing game. Awful decisions by the schedulers. Palace v Liverpool as well (assuming they win their replay). Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
They probably think no-one wants to watch Bradford v Fulham but then how many like the thought of Villa v Leicester Be funny if Liverpool don't win their replay...
So this weekend the FA Cup reaches the 5th Round stage. I reckon Arsenal or United have to fancy their chances of winning the cup this year. Bradford are the lowest ranked team left being 8th in League One, Preston are 4th in the same division. For our sakes I think it would be good for both Middlesbrough and Derby to get replays then progress. However, I fancy Middlesbrough won't be able to follow up their win at City with one at Arsenal, but you never know....
A Derby-Reading draw would be great, they would be playing the replay during the week we're due to play Rotherham, their fixture list will start clogging up. I agree about Middlesbrough, I can't see them getting past Arsenal even after the last round heroics. Both Derby and Middlesbrough play their games in hand midweek, so by the time they get to the first weekend of March they would have played in 4 consecutive midweeks. Of course it would be handy if we can win tomorrow and for a few days at least get a bit closer to them.
