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
The FA Cup First Round goes this weekend and we now have teams from League One and Two entering the competition. We started off six rounds ago with a game between Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association and Billingham Synthonia. Jarrow stuck around for two rounds before making way for Fleetwood Town of the Unibond Premier League. Fleetwood has prospered over the four rounds (all at home) and now face Salisbury City.
Salisbury has beaten VTFC 3-0 and Eastleigh and Fisher Athletic by a score of 1-0. All three games were away from home for Salisbury City. Salisbury City currently leads the Nationwide Conference South and have been made 8/13 favourites to move on to the Second Round and if successful they will also pocket around $30,000 - from the FA not the bookies.
Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports World Canada coverage of the 2006/07 FA Cup gets underway. Canadian viewers can also catch the FA Cup preview on Saturday at 9:00 p.m. (EST).
Featured Games to date. 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
Fleetwood Town march on to the Fourth Qualifying Round of the FA Cup and plays Wisbech Town of the Ridgeons Premier League (Eastern Counties) tomorrow.
Fleetwood won their third straight game in the FA Cup when they beat Warrington Town 2-0 a couple of weeks ago. Wisbech Town will be playing their fifth FA Cup game this season after beating Mildehall 4-1 (h), Bury Town 2-0 (a), Redditch United 3-2 (a) and Solihull Borough 2-1 (a).
Wisbech – nicknamed the Fenmen – are from Cambridgeshire in the east of England. They are currently sixteenth in their league and appeared to have kept their good performances for the Cup. This is the first time in four seasons that Wisbech has reached this stage of the FA Cup.
The Nationwide Conference National sides entered the draw at this stage so more recognizable names such as Cambridge United, York City, Rushden & Diamonds and Yeading now appear on the fixture list.
Fleetwood will again start as favourites given that they play in a league two levels above Wisbech. The winner will go into the draw for the First Round proper to be made on Saturday after the games have been completed.
Featured Games to date. 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
Fleetwood Town faces Warrington Town in the Third Qualifying Round of the FA Cup tomorrow October 14. WE have covered how Fleetwood has arrived at this stage in earlier blogs and they look to be favourites to move on again.
Warrington Town has beaten Yorks Amet 5-1, Long Eaton United 3-1 (both away from home) then needed a replay and extra time to beat Kendal Town 3-2 after an initial 1-1 draw at Kendal.
Warrington Town plays in UniBond First Division – the same league as Fleetwood’s opponents in the previous round Goole AFC. Warrington is currently five points below Goole but with two games less played.
Fleetwood plays at one level above in the UniBond Premier Division and they sit just above halfway. Richard Allen looks to be the man for Warrington Town to watch considering he has already scored 12 goals this season already.
Scores so far. 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
The First Round Qualifying of the FA Cup is set for this weekend. Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association who have successfully negotiated two rounds so far have their work cut out again this weekend. This time the opposition is Lancashire side Fleetwood Town.
I can tell that Fleetwood is a cut above the other opposition seen so far in that they tsit at the top of one of the league tables shown on Sky Sports News.
Nicknamed the “Fisherman,” Fleetwood Townare members of The Northern Premier (UniBond) Football League and play their home games at Highbury Stadium – no not that one.
They finished as league runners up last season and were sitting top of the league after winning both their games this season. The Northern Premier League is at step 3 in the English pyramid system which places it six divisions below the Premiership.
Fleetwood have a number of former Football League players as well as Stuart Barlow who played for Everton between 1990 and 1995.
Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association were involved in an absolutely cracker on Saturday when they came back from 3-0 down after only 10 minutes to beat Thackley FC 5-4. The match report can be found here.
Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A. now play away against Fleetwood Town in the FA First Round Qualifying on September 16 - not to be confused with the First Round that doesn't take place until November 11. There are four qualifying rounds before we get to the first round proper.
The Preliminary Round of the 2006/07 FA Cup is set for this weekend with 268 teams fighting for a place in the First Round Qualifying in two weeks time. We started with the match-up between Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association and Billingham Synthonia that was won by Jarrow 5-2 in front of a reported 67 paying spectators.
Some background on Thackley – “Thackley F.C. are a football club based in Bradford. They were established in 1930 and joined the Yorkshire League Division Two in 1967”.
Thackley beat Ramsbotton FC 1-0 in a replay before a crowd off 77 after a 1-1 draw in the Extra Preliminary Round.
The winner will play Fleetwood Town on September 16 in the First Round Qualifying.
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
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