F.A. Cup 5th Round a few quick thoughts
Dan Tracey
February 19, 2017
1,723 Views
- Lincoln City have undoubtedly made the headlines after disposing of Burnley at Turf Moor
- For Sean Dyche, what is probably better being off being referred to as Fort Knox has served them so well in the league this season but they failed to find that impressive home form yesterday lunchtime.
- Burnley made 6 changes but question will once again be asked why a Premier League team which is comfortably away from the drop zone feels the need to make so many changes
- But I suppose saying that would do a disservice to Danny Cowley and Lincoln side
- The cup dream continues and with them in the hat for the Quarter Finals the chances of them finally landing a dream tie will have vastly improved
- Lincoln have earned the deserved plaudits but once again Joey Barton hogs the spotlight for the wrong reasons
- The fact he feels the need to cheat against a non-league side says just about everything you need to know
- Poor form from Barton, poorer form from Match Of The Day for not even referencing the point in the post-match analysis
- If Lincoln’s cup run have had ended yesterday then it would have undoubtedly been Millwall hogging the column inches this morning
- That’s because they dumped out Premier League champions Leicester
- But then again how much of a surprise is that right now
- Sean Cummings late goal for 10 man Millwall sees the South London club reach the quarter final stage for the first time since the 2013 edition of the competition
- The win was nothing short of deserved for Neil Harris’ men as at times it looked like Leicester were the team playing with a man short
- For Claudio Ranieri perhaps whisper it quietly but the fact he does not have do this all over again at The King Power is probably a blessing disguise
- But this is a side that has forgotten what a win feels like, victory at The Den would have been a very welcome distraction
- A now out of sorts Leicester face an in form Sevilla in the Champions League in midweek
- They’ve rolled the dice in Europe but will they come unstuck against Jorge Sampaoli’s men
- Manchester City are also in Europe in midweek and they will have to do it all over again with Huddersfield after being held to a 0-0 draw
- There are 20 places between David Wagner’s Huddersfield and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the football pyramid but you would not have thought that was the case yesterday
- Huddersfield more then held their own as they kept City’s all star line up at bay
- Perhaps City were looking beyond Huddersfield and focusing on Monaco too much
- One thing is for sure it means an extra cup game for Pep Guardiola to deal with
- Chelsea were made to work for their win away at Wolves yesterday evening
- It could have been a different story though had George Saville scored early on
- He lashed a volley past Asmir Begovic only to see his effort come back off the post
- With Chelsea weathering the early scare they then edged their way into the game
- And their quality started to shine as they asserted their dominance on Paul Lambert’s side
- It took until the 65th minute when Pedro finally opened the scoring for Antonio Conte’s men
- And just a minute from time Diego Costa sealed Chelsea’s place with his 16th goal of the season as he slid a low finish past Carl Ikeme
- Chelsea come through the tie unscathed and are in the hat for Monday’s quarter final draw
- Also in the hat are Middlesbrough who were really made to work by Oxford United
- At 2-0 up going into the break Aitor Karanka’s men were cruising and you felt it was going to be a case of how many
- But Michael Appleton’s Oxford had other ideas
- Chris Maguire started the fightback with an expertly placed free kick
- And just 60 seconds later Toni Martinez would restore parity
- With the scores at 2-2 some teams would have perhaps shut up shop and aimed for the replay
- Oxford’s endeavour would be their undoing though
- A combination of tiredness and naivety allowed substitute Cristhian Stuani to tap in at the back post four minutes from time to send the hosts through
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