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QPR, without Arthur who was cup-tied, scored both goals in the first half with both coming from a player who Stan was keen to sign a couple of years ago, Martin Rowlands who was then at Brentford.
They weren’t the only ones to go out to opposition from lower division clubs though. Watford went down 1-0 at Bristol City with an extra time goal from Lee Miller whilst Notts County put out Ipswich.
Struggling at the bottom of Division Two they beat the Suffolk club 2-1 at Meadow Lane with all the goals, including two penalties, coming in the first ten minutes. They may be having difficulties in the league but Ipswich are the second 1st Division club to go out to them, they beat Preston in the previous round.
Result of the round must surely go to the club we knocked out at the same stage last season, Huddersfield Town. They went to the Stadium of Light on a hiding to nothing and came back with a 4-2 victory. The Terriers took the lead after two minutes and were in front for the rest of the game and ended it as comfortable winners despite Sunderland’s Kevin Kyle scoring twice against his former loan club.
Three more of the clubs in our division went out to Premiership clubs. Walsall lost 3-1 at Bolton as their poor run of results continues. Paul Merson scored the Walsall goal but it was nothing other than a consolation.
Crewe lost 1-0 at Leicester and Coventry faced the backlash of Glenn Hoddle’s departure and went down to a 3-0 defeat at home to a Spurs side in the hands of David Pleat. It was a bad time for Coventry to play a Spurs team where most of the players appear to be relieved at the departure of the former England manager and his faith healers.
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West Ham and Cardiff played out the match of the round at Ninian Park and came from two behind to beat the Welsh club. Robert Earnshaw doesn’t seem to be able to stop scoring just now and with only 25 minutes gone had put Cardiff 2-0 up.
But anything Earnshaw can do then so can Jermain Defoe. He scored right on half time from the penalty spot to reduce the arrears and scored twice more in the second half to take the Londoners through 3-2.
The Clarets are through and so are Gillingham and West Ham. But six other clubs from Division One have joined us in Round Three.
Wigan were the only ones to beat a Premiership club when they won 1-0 against Fulham. This is the second successive season they have beaten Fulham in this competition and this time round a Nathan Ellington goal was enough. It was two Ellington goals that saw them beat Fulham 2-1 last season in the 4th Round.
Palace beat Doncaster 2-1 at home, West Brom went through with the same scoreline at Hartlepool whilst Rotherham beat Colchester 1-0 at home.
Do you remember the Thames Valley Royals? They were going to be a merger of Oxford United and Reading some twenty years or so ago. The whole idea was that of Robert Maxwell who was Oxford Chairman at the time and also a shareholder of Reading.
Thankfully, unlike the current franchising, it didn’t come off and the two still separate clubs met this week with Reading (who were then the lesser of the two clubs) winning 3-1 at Oxford’s Kassam Stadium.
Reading, who had a let off this week when Peter Taylor turned down the opportunity to manage them, may now have given Kevin Dillon a better chance of claiming the job.
And finally Nottingham Forest who are now in Round Four without winning a game, in fact without even scoring a goal. They matched us in the last round with a 0-0 draw at Port Vale before winning on penalties and this week they did exactly the same at Tranmere Rovers.
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He proved to be the hero too because with Leeds trailing in the penalty shoot out he saved Swindon’s last two kicks.
Luton too came close and they also led 2-0 at Charlton. By the time extra time was completed it was 4-4 and they went out on penalties.
But Blackpool take pride of place with a 1-0 win against Birmingham with the midlands club again missing a penalty, this time from Stephen Clemence.
The draw for the next round will take place on Saturday around 5:20 p.m. Only The Football League could come up with a televised draw when most people are out watching football.
That draw will see those Premiership clubs involved in Europe come in and the 32 in the draw will include 18 from the Premiership, 9 from Division 1, 4 from Division 2 and 1 from Division 3.
They are as follows:
Premiership: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Charlton Athletic, Chelsea, Everton, Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Division 1: Burnley, Crystal Palace, Gillingham, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Rotherham United, West Bromwich Albion, West Ham United, Wigan Athletic.
Division 2: Blackpool, Bristol City, Notts County, Queens Park Rangers
Division 3: Huddersfield Town