|
The FA Cup seems to throw up less and less surprises but the Worthington seems to be an endless round of shocks, look at last year’s winners, and so the Clarets can feel relieved to still be in.
|
So the team that knocked us out of the FA Cup last season go through and so do Rushden & Diamonds who saw us off a year ago in this competition. It was slightly tougher for them than it was for Cheltenham but they eventually beat Millwall in a penalty shoot out.
Of the other clubs to go out from our division perhaps Stoke was the most surprising, although away from home they would have been expected to beat Bury and Grimsby were more than hopeful of beating Chesterfield at home.
Reading went down at Cambridge and Watford lost at home in their derby against Luton amidst shameful scenes and finally Bradford were beaten at Wrexham. We shouldn’t be surprised to see Wrexham amongst the giant killers, if Bradford could in any way be called giants, and I’m sure even the home fans had given this one up as the game went into the last minute with Wrexham trailing 1-0. An equaliser and a stoppage time winner saw them through.
Others went through but not without a scare and the biggest was for Wolves who were twice behind at Swansea before winning it with a late Alex Rae goal whilst Preston only just scraped through at Deepdale with an extra time win against 3rd Division strugglers Scunthorpe.
The First Round threw up a couple of hat trick heroes. Cardiffs Rob Earnshaw scored three of his team’s goals in a 5-1 win at league newcomers Boston but Macclesfield’s Danny Whitaker grabbed an extra time hat trick in their win against Barnsley at Moss Rose. There was no sign of anything spectacular as they fought out a 1-1 draw but the Silkmen went on to win it 4-1 with Whitaker’s goals coming after 106, 107 and 120 minutes.
Don’t be at all surprised if Barnsley boss Steve Parkin is the first to lose his job this season. After making an early impact at Oakwell last season he seemed powerless as they collapsed into the bottom three. Already this season he has been put under public pressure by Chairman John Dennis and surely his days there are now numbered.
Just one former Burnley player found the net in the First Round and that was Forest’s David Johnson who scored their third in a 4-0 win against Kidderminster at the City Ground. Johnson looks to be in the sort of form that he showed at the end of last season on loan at the Turf.
The 2nd Round draw will be on Sky Sports 1 live on Saturday afternoon at a time that is totally inconvenient for all football supporters. It is set to go ahead at around 2:30 (no definite time) so we should know our opponents before we kick off against Stoke.
Many of the Premiership clubs will be in the draw but not those competing in Europe, they are exempt until the 3rd Round. Stan, and presumably most of the club, want a big money spinning tie. I would prefer to see a lesser club at the Turf to give us a real chance to progress, but there again given our record against lower division clubs over the last few years that might not be the best of ideas.