Key events
In the men’s FA Cup third round we had a father-son story; in the women’s FA Cup fourth round there’s a tale of two sisters. It’s told by Suzanne Wrack here.
Here’s an offer: Pitchers Sports Bar in Tamworth are offering free beers for life to any Tamworth player who bags the winner in their FA Cup tie against Tottenham on Saturday.
Bar general manager Jason Pegg said: “We’re huge supporters of Tamworth FC, and this weekend’s FA Cup match against Spurs is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the club and the community. What better way to show our backing than with a little fun? A winning goal means more than just a place in the record books – it’s the stuff of legends. We want to be part of that excitement, and what better way than offering free beer for life to the player who delivers the magic moment?”
Would Ange be in the mood to accept an invite from the Tamworth hero?
By the way, I’ve crunched the numbers. The average price for a pint of beer in Tamworth is £4.50. The average bloke gets through 850 pints a year. If the Tamworth hero sticks to that – ignoring the NHS recommendation of 14 units per week and his manager telling him not to turn up to training pissed – and necks free beers for the next 50 years he’ll have saved himself 50 x 850 x £14.50 = £191,250. My god. Have Pitchers thought this through?
Here’s the bottom of the final Premier League table last season…
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17th Nottingham Forest
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18th Luton
Fast forward to the current day and Forest are third in the Premier League table and Luton 20th in the Championship. That’s quite the contrast and too much for Luton’s owners, who parted with boss Rob Edwards yesterday.
That Liverpool tie is featured in our double digit lowdown of the weekend’s FA Cup ties. Read all about them here.
Liverpool host Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup on Saturday (12.15pm) and, guess what, Arne Slot is aware of that advert.
“I don’t know that much as I am only here half a year but I do know about the milk advert! There was a clip about it. I know people from this area also play for this club. And I know a lot about the team which today I’ll know even more about it.”
Accrington are currently 19th in League Two if you were wondering although they’ve won their last two games.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot didn’t exactly fuel the Kavratskhelia rumours in his press conference earlier this morning.
Talking about the Georgian star, the Reds manager said: “When you said they are linked with clubs, we are all linked! Kavratskhelia, it is January, and I said after West Ham, don’t disappoint me with links. That is what is happening now 99/100 at the end of the window. Almost all of these stories are untrue, so what can I comment about? The rumours keep going but no comments from my side.”
Napoli have placed an $82m price tag on the winger apparently.
It’s January. It’s time to gossip. Plenty of transfer links flying around here, courtesy of Simon Burnton.
Back to Everton’s game last night and the father v son storyline never emerged as Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson refused to bring on Tyler Young to play against Dad Ashley. Keeping it in the family, surely the explanation would have got a nod of approval from Darren’s old man.
“It was very difficult to leave Tyler on the bench but I’ve got to do what I think is best for the team,” the Peterborough boss explained. “As much as I wanted Tyler to get on, if the game had been 2-0 at that point I would’ve put him on, but at 1-0, I had to get a forward on. I’ve got to try and get something out of the game and do what is best for my team. One of their players had a pop at me which was bang out of order. We are not a charity case.”
Jonathan Wilson reflects on Sean Dyche’s Everton exit. The numbers are surprising and perhaps currency for Dyche when he seeks future employment. But the style of football was, let’s be honest, utterly abysmal.
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Everton have lost only four of their past 16 games in all competitions.
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Everton have kept five clean sheets in their past eight games and in the past month held Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City to draws.
So what now for Everton? It looks like David Moyes is coming back. José Mourinho is not under consideration despite rumours. More here from the busy Andy Hunter.
Preamble
Although it’s hard to keep track of when ‘the FA Cup’s not what it was’ mutterings began, there’s still something about third-round weekend that fires the imagination. And as round three draws go, this one is up there: local derbies, minnows v giants, crazy gangs v culture clubs plus a bona fide heavyweight humdinger. Here’s a sample:
Liverpool v Accrington Stanley
Chelsea v Morecambe
Man City v Salford
Newcastle v Bromley
Tamworth v Tottenham
Arsenal v Man Utd
Starting round three last night was a kick in the face for traditionalists but football can’t have a day off so it had to be. News of those games, build-up and nostalgic dips coming your way.
‘IT’S RADFORD AGAIN… WHAT A GOAL, WHAT A GOAL!’
Let’s start with Thursday night’s FA Cup third-round results.
Everton 2-0 Peterborough
Fulham 4-1 Watford
Sheffield United 0-1 Cardiff
Andy Hunter was at Goodison Park where fans had plenty to digest after Sean Dyche was shown the door marked Do One just hours before kick off.
