FA Cup: More Third Round replay shocks

Lonnie — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:36:48 +0000

Blue Square Conference South club Havant and Waterlooville beat League One leaders Swansea 4-2 to book a dream trip to Anfield in the fourth round of the FA Cup on January 26.

Richard Paquette, Jamie Collins and Rocky Baptiste gave the Hampshire side a three-goal lead, before Guillem Bauza pulled a goal back for the League One leaders in the 39th minute. Jason Scotland made it 3-2 – but Tom Jordan’s 65th-minute goal sealed the victory for Havant and Waterlooville.

I absolutely love the story behind Havant and Waterlooville and, in particular, their striker Ricky Baptiste. Baptiste, as well as preparing for his role as a potential giantkiller, is doing the Knowledge in a bid to become a London cabbie. Baptiste explained to The Sun: “To complete the Knowledge you have to know all of London’s streets within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. It’s very hard work and I go to bed dreaming of London streets. I want to be a cabbie so that when I finish playing football I have something to fall back on. ”

The other upset of the day came from League Two club Hereford United, who set up a fourth round tie at home to Cardiff with a 1-0 victory over League One side Tranmere Rovers. Winger Simon Johnson scored in the 72nd minute to push his club through. Tranmere will feel hard done by as the match reports all say that they dominated most of the game.

Newcastle beat Stoke 4-1 at St James’ Park to set up a fourth-round trip to Arsenal. Newcastle played over an hour with just 10 men as Emre was shown the red card at the half-hour mark for a bad tackle on Stoke’s John Eustace. Micheal Owen, Claudio Cacapa, James Milner and Damien Duff scored for the Magpies before Stoke’s Liam Lawrence notched a consolation goal.

Manchester City will face Sheffield United in the fourth round after beating West Ham with a 73rd-minute goal from Brazilian midfielder Elano. City’s striker problems will continue in the new year as on-loan Mexican Nery Castillo fell awkwardly under a challenge from Lucas Neill and was stretchered off with a dislocated shoulder in the second half of the match.

Transfer window opens

Lonnie — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:18:39 +0000

The transfer window has started and I’ll be covering all the moves and rumours over the next couple of weeks. So far, the deals have been largely loan moves of Premier League squad players to Championship sides. Queens Park Rangers have been the busiest, wrapping up loan deals for West Ham’s Hogan Ephraim, Arsenal’s Matthew Connolly, and Manchester United’s Kieran Lee.

The biggest loan move thus far has been Manchester City’s capture of highly touted Mexican international striker Nery Castillo on a year-long deal from Shakhtar Donetsk. Castillo only moved to the Ukraine in the summer in a £15m move from Greek side Olympiacos but he has failed to hold down a starting place. Even though he struggled at Shaktar, Castillo’s reputation was built after he scored four goals to help Mexico reach the semi-finals of the 2007 Copa America and managed 12 goals in 25 games – including three goals in six Champions League matches – in his final season with Olympiacos in Greece.

City have needed help up front since Valeri Bojinov blew out a knee in a match against Manchester United in August. Despite the signing of Castillo, Manchester City have insisted Rolando Bianchi will not be leaving in January to return to Serie A. Bianchi, an £8m summer signing, has failed to hold down a regular place and Darius Vassell, Georgios Samaras and Emile Mpenza have scored only three times between them so City may not be done in the transfer market yet. They’ve been linked with a number of strikers including Nicolas Anelka.

To that end, they handed a trial to Asian player of the year and Saudi Arabia captain Yasser Al Qahtani. The 25-year-old Al Hilal striker helped Saudi Arabia reach the final of the Asian Cup in July and has continually been linked with a move to a European club. He was offered the chance to train with Chelsea when he was crowned Asian player of the year in November. Ultimately, the trial did not work out but it shows City’s desire to find more goals in the second half of the season.

Not everyone is excited about the transfer window. Take for example, Reading’s manager Steve Coppell who said: “I cannot see the logic in a transfer window. It brings on a fire-sale mentality, causes unrest via the media and means clubs buy too many players.”

There is some logic in his statements but you have to wonder if his comments are influenced by the fact that two of his players, full-back Nicky Shorey and midfielder Stephen Hunt, are the subject of many rumours linking them with a move away from Reading.

I’ll be back again a bit later this week with a “Fact or Trash” look at the early days of this January transfer window.

EPL Talk » nery castillo

FA Cup: More Third Round replay shocks

Transfer window opens