FA Cup 3rd Round Romance

This is probably my favourite weekend of the football season where the minnows go up against the big teams. It was a terrible weekend for Manchester as City lost to League 1 Oldham Athletic and United drew 0-0 with Exeter City of the Conference at Old Trafford. This was the shock of the round and maybe now Sir Alex Ferguson will learn that playing his 2nd reserve team against lower ranked opposition is not such a good idea. They now look very silly and have to travel to Exeter for a game against a team 93 places below the in the league. It serves them right in my opinion. It's also the second consecutive 0-0 draw at Old Trafford after the unjust draw with Spurs on Tuesday.

Other giant-killers included the regulars, Yeovil Town and Sheffield United, along with West Ham United (but they were favourites to beat Norwich anyway (sorry Buckers!)). Scunthorpe came close to upsetting Chelsea after taking the lead as did Stoke with Arsenal but the Premiership top two came out on top in the end. Sadly, it was not to be for outskirts of West London side Yeading who lost 2-0 to Newcastle. They did however put up a good fight and in the first half it was difficult to tell which side was 135 rungs above the other in the laegue ladder but quality showed through in the end.

Hmmm a 135 rung ladder. Sounds a bit unsafe unless it's attached to a crane or building or something.

Anyway hopefully the replays will provide more shocks as that is what the roance of the cup is ll about.

Cardiff had a bad day in the Women's FA Cup. Their teams lost 3-4 to Chelsea (who beat Ruth's football team earlier in the season)and 4-5 to Millwall and former top ladies team Doncaster Belles lost 1-9 to Birmingham. Ouch!