Well, what a day of FA Cup football!
Bristol Rovers and Huddersfield Town, the lowest ranked teams left in the FA Cup were looking for a big payday.
Bristol Rovers, facing an abject managerless Southampton side were looking to qualify for the quarter finals for the first time in 50 years.
Huddersfield Town, were hoping to produce the shock of the round by getting a result at high-flying billionaires Chelsea.
Elsewhere, the other potential shock saw out of form Championship side Barnsley visit historic Anfield to face giants Liverpool.
The early kick off witnessed a proper cup tie at the Memorial Stadium, Bristol. A frosty, muddy pitch was never going to allow for attractive flowing football so we were treated instead to the hustle and bustle of two decidedly unattractive teams. Southampton are in a state of quandry so an upset was always on the cards with a draw being the likely outcome. That was of course until Rickie Lambert's deflected free-kick sealed the victory for Rovers with just a few minutes remaining. They are now the lowest ranked League left in the competition and will be hoping to face one of the Premiership big-guns left in the competition, it could be Chelsea who overcame Huddersfield Town 3-1 with relative ease and a superb performance from Frank Lampard. It won't be, however, Liverpool, who crashed out in the final seconds of their with Barnsley.
Forgive me if I trail off-topic for a second, but I have never agreed with big clubs playing reserve sides or resting their bigger players for Cup games. It's mostly evident in the Carling Cup and as Arsenal found out to their chagrin, it can backfire horrendously. For one, it shows a distinct lack of respect to your opponents, the same opponents who do the same job yet get paid considerably less. Liverpool came unstuck today and I for one am glad. They may have been resting players like Steve Gerrard and Fernando Torres for the lucrative Champions League game with Inter Milan later this week, but Barnsley deserve their victory for the arrogance demonstrated by Liverpool - not to mention the heroics of their on-loan goalkeeper, Luke Steele. It's not the first time they've struggled in the cup either this season. A third round tie against cash-strapped Luton Town, went to a replay. They were 1-2 down against the minnows of Havant & Waterlooville in the last round and today they've been beat. The lessons here are this... there's too many average players on clubs books, there's too much money in the game with greedy foreign-based owners who have nothing but even more money on their minds, and UEFA are at fault for making too big a deal out of the Champions League when only a quarter of the teams who qualify are actually Champions!!!
But that debate is for another day so for now I will sign off by saying this, the FA Cup is the greatest club competition in the world and has been since 1872. Days like this will be talked about for years to come, the day the little club, stood up to the rich and said "Your money means nothing if you haven't got the desire". Barnsley and Bristol Rovers will enjoy their success today and we'll look forward to the quarter final draw later this week. As for Liverpool, my bet is we'll see a very different side against Inter Milan.
1 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Simon Williams about 1 year ago
This was the Liverpool team against Barnsley:
Itandje
Riise
Carragher
Hyppia
Finnan
Babel
Alonso
Lucas
Benayoun
Crouch
Kuyt
If you think that is a reserve team, then I can only assume you know absolutely nothing about Liverpool, or football in general.
Gerrard, Reina and Mascherano were the only players left out by Benitez who could reasonably be expected to normally start. Torres has been injured for the last two weeks, and while he may unneccesarily have been risked against Barnsley, picking an International front 2 of Crouch and Kuyt could hardly be called a reserve line up. Gerrard came on as sub in the 70th minute with the score still 1-1, so he was on the pitch when Barnsley got the winner. Mascherano had played the previous 5 or 6 games, including a round trip to Argentina to play an international in the middle.
I am fed up with ill informed hacks rubbishing Benitez every time Liverpool do not win a game. This defeat was not down to arrogance or ignorance of the FA Cup and its traditions, it was solely down to the Liverpool players inability to take clear chanes in a game they dominated for long periods.
Well done Barnsley, they rode their luck and scored two good goals, they beat a Liverpool first team, not a reserve team. And as for 'a very different side against Inter' no you won't, you will see a maximum of 4 changes, and Benitez makes that number of changes EVERY game anyway.
I agree with some of your article, but your comments on Liverpool are just badly researched.
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