Football Park's FA Cup Weekend Roundup: Shocks of the Weekend

Football Park's FA Cup Weekend Roundup: Shocks of the Weekend

FA Cup Blog

Football Park’s FA Cup Weekend Roundup: Shocks of the Weekend

It was a return this weekend of the first round of the greatest domestic cup competition in the world, The FA Cup. This historic trophy is the oldest domestic cup in the world, starting all the way back in the 1871-72 season where The Wanderers beat The Royal Engineers at the now County Cricket ground of Surrey, The Oval. You may ask who those two teams are and honestly, I haven’t got a clue either, your guess is as good as mine.

The FA Cup can make or break a clubs season. From teams all the way down in the lower leagues of English football, going on a cup run can make a club an incredible amount of money and can completely transform them. Or a true underdog story getting their hands on the trophy. In recent years we have Wigan Atheltics win over Manchester City and just last season, Crystal Palace also beat City in the final. (Still in pain over that one, thanks City).

One of the great FA Cup runs

We can look at Lincoln Cities cup run in 2017 as a perfect example, as a non-league side they beat Championship sides Ipswich Town and Brighton and Hove Albion then astonishingly beat Premier League side Burnley 1-0 to make it through to the quarter finals, the first time a non-league side has done so since the 1913-14 season.

The club reported a total profit in the year of 2017 as £1.28 million, largely due to the cup run. Money like that can transform a club like Lincoln City and looking to present day they are now sitting fifth in League 1, only two points off the automatic places. And you have to question how much of their recent success is down to that cup run they went on.

Now we turn our attention to this weekends action as there was plenty of drama and plenty of shocks…

Linney Magic

Firstly, let’s start off with the most entertaining shock of the weekend. Reading faced off against a Mark Hughes led Carlisle. Reading go 2-0 up thanks to goals from Lewis Wing and Brighton loanee, Mark O’Mahony. Eight minutes were added on but the Royals thought they were all but in the draw for the second round.

However, this is the FA Cup we are talking about, Regan Linney slots one away to make it 2-1 in the 93rd minute, surely the comeback isn’t on? Well, three minutes later Linney again makes himself a cult hero and smashes one past Jack Stevens to send the away end into raptures.

The game goes to extra time and not even five minutes in that man again Regan Linney completes his hat trick to put Carlisle 3-2 up. Reading are unable to fight back and Carlisle complete one of the all time FA Cup come backs and it’s all thanks to one man, Regan Linney.

Battering Down South

Struggling Crawley faced off against a Boreham Wood side full of confidence. Coming into this game both teams form couldn’t be more opposite if they tried. Boreham Wood have only lost an astonishing one in their last 18 games. Whereas Crawley have only won once in their last seven and sit 23rd in League 2.

However, being the football league side Crawley would still see themselves as favourites. Despite that the game couldn’t of gone any worse for them. Just nine minutes in Matt Rush, no not the son of Ian Rush, made it 1-0 to the visitors. Only six minutes later Boreham Wood were awarded a penalty, Zak Brunt stepped up and converted the spot kick to make it 2-0 inside 15 minutes.

Things went from bad to worse for Crawley as Ryan Loft was shown a straight red card right on the brink of half time to dampen the mood even more for the home fans, if that was even possible. The Visitors made it 3-0 later on in the second half through Abdul Abdulmalik (an unbelievable name I must say) and that was enough to put Boreham Wood into the hat for the second round and round off a convincing performance.

A Last minute equaliser, Penalties, Drama in Brackley

A grand total of 36 places separated Notts County and Brackley Town. Notts County sitting in the play offs in League 2 while Brackley are looking over their shoulders in the National League so has to be a routine win for Notts right?

Jatta put them 1-0 up with his eighth goal of the season. 1-0 up to a lower league opposition inside 13 minutes, Notts must cruise to victory now…

14 minutes later Matt Lowe headed home from close range as he put Brackley Town back on level terms with the League 2 side.

Second half roles around and just like the first, Notts County scored an early goal, this time through Jodi Jones from the penalty spot after Conor Grant was brought down by Jon Maxted.

90 minutes roles around and the fourth official holds up six additional minutes. Just as Notts thought they were home and dry Oliver Norburn commits a handball and with all the pressure on him Callum Stewart calmly slots it away to send the game to extra time as the home crowd erupt.

No goals followed in extra time as the second game of the day was headed to penalties. Notts missed twice and Brackley only missed once as Zak Brown took and scored the winning penalty to send the National League side through to the second round.

Biggest Shock of the Round

Two divisions, and a staggering 57 places separated the two sides as Gateshead produced the biggest shock of the weekends ties. Wimbledon are sixth in league 1, just two points away from an automatic spot and three off of top. Gateshead are mid table in the National League, 19 points from 16 games and have conceded the third most goals in the division.

A relatively quiet first half until Kain Adom beard down on goal and tucked his effort away to make it 1-0. He is on an incredible run of form of late, that goal made it seven goals in his last seven games.

Second half rolled around and just six minutes after the restart Fenton John doubles the National Leagues sides lead. Despite their poor defensive record in the league Gateshead do brilliantly to keep Wimbledon at bay and book their ticket for the second round of the FA Cup.

And we have Frank Nouble enjoying a well earned drink after the game.

Thomas Davies-Crisp
Thomas Davies-Crisp Brighton and Hove Albion Correspondent

Thomas Davies-Crisp - Brighton and Hove Albion Correspondent at Football Park

Meet Thomas. He is a graduate from the University of Brighton who studied Sports Journalism. During his time on the three-year course, he learned all forms of Journalism, from live blogs, match reports, interviews, reactionary pieces, writing features and many more.

Thomas is also a massive Brighton fan so perfectly suited for his role. He's held a season ticket for 10+ years as well as travelling up and down the country following the Seagulls. His favourite game being his first European away day in Amsterdam as Brighton beat Ajax 2-0. Being a huge Brighton fan it's helped him gain huge knowledge of the ins and outs of the club and what it truly means to be a fan.

Being new to the Sports Journalism industry and having just graduated, Thomas is always keen to learn and develop his writing to become better each day, he hopes he can bring his own twists on certain matters going on at Brighton over here at Football Park.

View all articles by Thomas Davies-Crisp →

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