It took Chelsea a replay before they managed to move past Spurs in the 6th round of the FA Cup and into the semi final. Both games were outstanding adverts for the FA Cup and as the old cliché goes, neither side deserved to lose.

Now Chelsea faces a Premiership side in consecutive rounds and this time it is at a neutral venue, Old Trafford. The opposition is a side that has won the trophy more times than the Pensioners although the last Blackburn Rovers win was back to 1928. Seventy-nine years is quite the barren stretch but the real glory days for the Rovers go back even further to the latter part of the 19th century.

In the eight seasons from 1884 to 1891 Blackburn Rovers won the FA Cup five times including three consecutive victories in the first three of these years. (Another Blackburn club the Olympic, won the Cup in 1883 and became the first team from outside of London to do so.)

The first two FA Cup wins by Blackburn Rovers were both against Scottish amateur side Queen’s Park. In 1884 the team from Glasgow came a cropper due to the application of a different offside rule. In Scotland only two attackers had to be between the attacker and the goal, while in England it was three. Queen’s Park had two goals disallowed and lost 2-1. The next season Queen’s Park lost 2-0 and a year later Rovers completed a straight hat trick of wins (the last team to do so) by beating West Bromwich Albion 2-0 in a replay after a scoreless draw.

In 1928, in only the sixth final played at Wembley, Huddersfield Town was shocked 3-1. Huddersfield Town finished as double runners-up that season as a Dixie Dean (59 goals) inspired Everton beat them to the League title. Since then the only other appearance for Blackburn Rovers in an FA Cup Final was in 1960 when Wolverhampton Wanderers won 3-0. The final was not considered memorable and when discussed it is usually the career ending injury to Rovers’ Dave Whelan that is remembered. Whelan after failing to cover finally took an insurance settlement, parlayed it into a fortune, and now owns Wigan Athletic.

A semi-final loss to Arsenal in 2005 is the furthest Blackburn had reached since 1960 and now they – along with Watford – they have a chance to upset what seems to most fans dream final of Chelsea against Manchester United. The road to what might be a first FA Cup Final in 47 years, started with an emphatic 4-1 away against Everton. In the 5th round it was another four goals scored away from home and this time Luton Town were the victims.

Round 5 brought a hard-earned scoreless draw against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium followed by an 87th minute winner that flew off the boot of substitute Benni McCarthy to take the replay. Manchester City fell in the last round this time by a score of 2-0. So after playing four rounds and five games Blackburn has still only conceded one goal – scored by Everton’s Andy Johnson. 
The line-up of officials for Sunday’s game at Old Trafford is as follows; Referee – Alan Wiley, Assistant Referees – Cann and Ward, Fourth Official – Mark Clattenburg.

Here is a link to the latest news from the official FA Cup website and FA Cup payments that the clubs will receive.

Past Featured Games
Extra Preliminary Round         Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A.   5-2     Billingham Synthonia.
Preliminary Round                  Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A    5-4     Thackley F.C
First Qualifying Round            Fleetwood Town                     3-0     Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A. 
Second Qualifying Round      Fleetwood Town                     4-2     Goole AFC 
Third Qualifying Round          Fleetwood Town                     2-0     Warrington Town
Fourth Qualifying Round        Fleetwood Town                     2-0     Wisbech Town
First Round                             Salisbury City                          3-0     Fleetwood Town
Second Round                       Salisbury City                          1-1     Nottingham Forest
Second Round Replay           Nottingham Forest                   2-0     Salisbury City
Third Round                           Nottingham Forest                   2-0     Charlton 
Fourth Round                         Chelsea                                  3-0     Nottingham Forest
Fifth Round                            Chelsea                                  4-0     Norwich City
Sixth Round                           Chelsea                                  3-3     Tottenham Hotspur
Sixth Round Replay               Tottenham Hotspur                 1-2      Chelsea

Howard Bloom’s blog – “Sports Business News” – looks at the latest developments in the FIFA, MasterCard and Visa sponsorship dispute.

Dennis Campbell updates the progress of the Stevens’ Inquiry.

Richard Winton describes Steven Pressley's exit from Tynecastle.The latest rumours have Pressley heading south - Southampton perhaps?

Brian Cooney attempts to solve one of the great mysteries of Scottish football.  Why did such a rare talent as George Connolly, walkout on Celtic in the 70s?

Amy Lawrence comments on the situation at Milan. Milan looked poor and quite stale against Torino on Sunday.

After giving Friday's announcement by U.S.S.F. President Sunil Gulati of Bob Bradley's appointment more thought, I am more convinced than before that this has been badly mishandled.

Gulati had the chance to simply announce that Bob Bradley would be taking over responsibility for the USA Olympic team. Further, negotiations with Jurgen Klinsmann had broken down after being at an advanced stage and that in the meantime, until a permanent coach was appointed, Bob Bradley will also be in charge of the full national team. Nothing more. 

Unfortunately, when Gulati started to talk about Bradley being a potential candidate to stay on long-term, he started to dig himself a very big hole. What possible criteria, could you apply to Bradley's performance over the next six months - over three years before the next World Cup - that could possibly tell you more than is known now?

Finally, some comments on the Chelsea - Arsenal game.

1. Chelsea did hit the woodwork three times, and had one shot cleared off the line. 

2. I thought Gilberto Silva and Michael Essien were absolutely outstanding. Just like at Old Trafford a few weeks ago, Essien turned the game for Chelsea.

3. Are Shevchenko's critics the same people who wrote off Drogba and Essien? 

4. If referee Alan Wiley yellow carded Jens Lehmann for this push on Didier Drogba, then booked Drogba for retaliation, why did the referee not award Chelsea a penalty?