KNOCKOUT BLOWS
While ecstatic Plymouth Argyle fans almost certainly cared not one whit that they couldn’t recognise some of the faces in the Liverpool side their basement-dwelling Championship side knocked out of the FA Cup on Sunday, there were no end of media buzz-kills on hand to talk down their achievement. The fact that Arne Slot had spared almost all of his big-name heavy artillery the long trip to Devon was immediately raised, although we can only guess if the presence of Alisson, Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Ibrahima Konaté in their side might have led to a more impressive Liverpool performance. You can only beat what’s in front of you and while it’s true that Liverpool’s line-up certainly had an early pre-season friendly feel about it, the atmosphere at Home Park did not and could only have been more febrile if a visiting Scouser had been caught putting jam on their half-time scone before the clotted cream.
While the seismic nature of Plymouth’s giant-killing has been the subject of some tedious and unnecessary debate, there were no such curmudgeonly mutterings about an upset almost 500 miles away that could scarcely have registered higher on the Fitba-Richter scale. Making the short trip to Ibrox from the 52,000-capacity Hampden Park home to which they attract an average crowd of 1,798, second-tier side Queen’s Park scored with their only shot of the game to knock Rangers out of the Scottish Cup for the first time in 143 years. An amateur side as recently as 2019, Queen’s last reached the last 16 of the Scottish Cup 42 years ago, before any of their current squad were born and travelled to Ibrox with their ranks severely depleted by injuries. While home fans could have been forgiven for expecting to see their side run out easy winners, they instead bore witness to the unthinkable and made no secret of their displeasure as their players trudged off on the back of a crushing humiliation.
“The ball just came to me and I done my ting, innit?” said Queen’s elated substitute Seb Drozd, as he forensically analysed the excruciating minutiae of his fine match-winning strike for the benefit of a post-match interviewer. While Rangers huffed and puffed, raining shot after shot on their visitors’ goal, a combination of blocks, goal-line clearances and the quite remarkable heroics of Queen’s goalkeeper Calum Ferrie kept the home side at bay until they were thrown the lifeline of a potentially blush-sparing penalty in the seventh minute of added time. Up stepped James Tavernier, only to be denied by Ferrie, who then had to endure the anguish of a lengthy VAR check while the curtain-twitchers of McStockley Park made sure he hadn’t left his goal-line before the spot-kick was taken.
“We had 30 chances but no goals,” fumed Rangers boss Philippe Clement during a post-mortem that could scarcely have been more uncomfortable if somebody in a lab coat had actually set about him with a scalpel. “Thirty chances is nothing to do with tactics. It is unacceptable to lose this. They built credit back the last weeks and months; today they lost all of that credit.” With his own reserves of kudos among Rangers fans already snakebelly low before this seismic embarrassment, Clement may well be ushered out the Ibrox door, even if those of a Celtic persuasion will be extremely sorry to see him go.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
Join The One Show Niall McVeigh at 7pm GMT for updates on the FA Cup fifth-round draw – and then John Brewin will be on hand at 7.45pm for Doncaster 1-3 Crystal Palace.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
How KCTV gets the footage is a mystery … there is no studio. It’s straight into the game, which carries Korean commentary from KCTV over the crowd noise. Most homes appear to have TV these days and KCTV is the most widely received national network, so most homes are able to watch” – a report by US website 38 North reveals that a heavily censored version of the Premier League is now being beamed into North Korea though we doubt Richard Masters will be paying the country a visit to discuss any possible copyright breach.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Join Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and the Football Weekly pod squad as they chew over that shock at Home Park and the rest of the weekend’s FA Cup action.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
Perhaps Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s inspiration can come from the owners of Football Manager and officially bin MU25 for similar ‘delays and technical hitches’ (Friday’s Football Daily, full email edition), although I doubt a refund would create a ‘huge disappointment’ among its fanbase. Aiming for a MU26 launch date of around November sounds about right as well” – Ian Potter.
Rich Goldthorpe’s twin-fandom combination of Manchester United and St Albans City tore at my heartstrings (Football Daily letters passim), but sadly I can go one better (worse). United, my team since childhood more than 50 years ago, and St Albans City – now my home – are accompanied by my original home team, Grantham Town. The Gingerbreads are currently hurtling out of the Northern Premier League Midlands division in the wrong direction for a second successive relegation. Fourteen points from 28 games with only Walsall Wood below them and that’s because Walsall have no points at all after folding earlier this year. I don’t even know what division lies below the NPLM. This has been a year to look away from the results and hope for better things next year. Still, once you’ve got your team(s) you’ve got them for good … or in this case bad” – David Fryer.
If Arne Slot wanted an option on the bench, he should have picked Djimi Traoré. He could always pull out an " target="_blank" class="link"> unforgettable goal playing against lower league opposition, that lad. What? Well, John Aldridge then, surely to be relied on to put it away in a clutch FA cup situation. Yes, I’m still so bitter” – Jon Millard
Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day is … Ian Potter, who gets a copy of David Squires’s brilliant new book: Chaos in the Box. We have more copies to give away this week but if you’re not lucky enough to win one you can order your own in the Guardian Bookshop. There are loads of other great tomes waiting to be added to your basket there, too. So get shopping! Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
The conduct of police was “completely unacceptable” in dealing with Matildas and Chelsea star Sam Kerr when she arrived at a police station, her defence barrister told a court.
An Essex police officer has been sacked after admitting “tragedy chanting” at Liverpool fans during a Premier League match last year.
Newcastle have paid tribute to former striker John Tudor following his death at the age of 78. “Best known for striking up a prolific partnership with Malcolm Macdonald - and for his terrace chant, ‘Hallelujah, John Tudor’ - the Ilkeston-born forward scored 72 goals in 219 appearances for the Magpies,” read a club statement.
Ange Postecoglou has invited all-comers to shower him with verbal pelters after Tottenham’s FA Cup loss at Aston Villa … but just don’t bring the kids into it. “If it’s to get rid of me that’s fine. Good on you. Go for it a million times,” he roared. “But in terms of this group of players, what they’ve given over the past two and a half months has been outstanding.”
Looking back at City’s brave 2-1 win at Leyton Orient, Pep Guardiola reckons that just like Ryu, Jack Grealish is a street fighter. “Jack has this sense of the street. He is a player of the street,” deadpanned the Manchester City manager, as he sanded off another of the one-time maverick’s edges. “Today most of the players, for a manager, are academic – ‘you have to do this or that’. Jack is a fighter. He is there to fight in the stadiums when the people shout.” Hadouken!
Looking forward to City’s Bigger Cup play-off against Real Madrid, Pep Guardiola has admitted Real Madrid’s attack will be impossible for his defenders to control for the whole tie. “How they combine, their runs, the ability one-against-one, how they keep the ball. They are exceptional,” the Spaniard whispered, softly cradling Abdukodir Khusanov in his arms.
ROADS TO WEMBLEY
We’re now following, erm, Millwall in the men’s FA Cup after their impressive 2-0 fourth-round win at the home of the Championship’s leading side, Leeds. In grim scenes, there were “vile tragedy chants” from some away supporters during the game that were condemned by both clubs. A Leeds statement read: “We know the impact this has on the families of Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight, along with the whole fan base of Leeds United. We will work with the police and Millwall Football Club to identify those involved, whilst we will also continue our efforts with the football authorities to help eradicate these chants from the game.” In the Women’s FA Cup, we were following Wolves who had a real giant visiting town in Manchester United. The 6-0 away win for Marc Skinner’s side means we now have to put away our gold rosette and replace it with a red, black and white one. The draw for the men’s fifth round is coming up later and the women’s quarter-final ties will be plucked out of the bowl on Tuesday evening.
NESTA SEE YOU AGAIN
23 December 2024: Monza sack Alessandro Nesta after only one league win in 17 leaves the club last in Serie A.
24 December 2024: Monza appoint Salvatore Bocchetti.
10 February 2025: Monza sack Bocchetti after only one win in seven games, with the club still anchored to the bottom of the league table.
10 February 2025: Erm, Monza reappoint Alessandro Nesta. “Monza announce that we have revoked [Nesta’s] dismissal [and] he once again takes up the role of coach.” That’ll sort it!
STILL WANT MORE?
Evertonian Alexandra Topping made a final pilgrimage to Goodison Park with her nine-year-old son to make a bittersweet farewell to her club’s soon-to-be former ground and wrote this lovely thing.
Del Piero and Christian Vieri they are not but two Italians – Mateo Retegui and Moise Kean – comfortably topping the Serie A scoring charts has got Nicky Bandini all excited.
Andy Brassell picks over the bones of Borussia Dortmund’s latest stumble, a defeat to top-four hopefuls Stuttgart, which featured an excruciating own goal for Waldemar Anton.
Sid Lowe on how Oihan Sancet’s treble exorcised Athletic’s penalty pain against Girona.
Women’s FA Cup talking points? Women’s FA Cup talking points! Oh and there’s are also men’s ones, if you like.
An FA Cup shock shouldn’t unhinge Liverpool, but football isn’t logical, writes Jonathan Wilson.
Joe Ironside became an FA Cup hero for Cambridge against his beloved Newcastle in 2022 and now the Doncaster striker tells Louise Taylor he wants another scalp in Crystal Palace.
And Luis Henrique has been sensational for Marseille in Ligue 1 this season. Next step the Seleção and Premier League? Luke Entwistle has more.
MEMORY LANE
March 2005: A goalkeeper makes a save in a Sunday league match on the famous Hackney Marshes in east London. Surely those goals are not full size. And just look at the amount of old tape on the posts and crossbar. It’s clearly seen some action over the years. Football as it should be.
