Almost Reds faces for Liverpool
DEFENDER Brad Smith’s second-half goal rescued a 2-2 draw as injury-hit seventimes FA Cup winners Liverpool denied fourth tier Exeter City a notable third round giantkilling scalp late on Friday night.
The Premier League outfit, playing their third match in less than a week and without 11 injured first-teamers, fielded a barely recognisable second-string side and nearly slipped up against Exeter who are languishing in the bottom half of League Two.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp made 11 changes from the team that beat Stoke in the opening leg of the League Cup semifinals on Tuesday with Christian Benteke and forgotten man Jose Enrique, featuring for the first time in nearly a year, the only two with more than four senior appearances.
Exeter, sensing the opportunity to cause an upset on home turf, went ahead after nine minutes when a low cross from Jamie Reid was stabbed home by top scorer Tom Nichols.
Liverpool, who have never lost in the FA Cup to a side from the fourth rung of English football, were level three minutes later when teenage striker Jerome Sinclair took advantage of hesitant defending to fire the ball home.
Swirling
The hosts went back in front on the stroke of halftime when Lee Holmes caught out Liverpool keeper Adam Bogdan direct from a corner, his swirling delivery creeping under the crossbar, but left back Smith’s equaliser on 73 minutes earned a replay at Anfield.
While Exeter will be looking forward to reaping the financial benefits from another meeting, Klopp could barely contain his frustration.
“I can’t believe we have to play another game now,” the German said. “It’s obvious what we have to learn in the future. We have to be more robust. It was a difficult pitch. Exeter did really well. On one-on-one situations they were more robust than our guys.”
Meanwhile minor league Eastleigh suffered FA Cup heartbreak when they conceded a late equaliser to four-times winners Bolton Wanderers on a gluepot pitch at their snug Ten Acres ground yesterday.
The Hampshire part-timers were on the verge of causing the day’s big shock when they led through Dorian Dervite’s own goal but debt-ridden Championship side Bolton levelled three minutes from time through Darren Pratley to set up a replay.
On a day of 25 ties, holders Arsenal, bidding to become the first club to win the trophy three times in succession since Black- burn Rovers in the 19th century, came from goal down to beat Premier League strugglers Sunderland 3-1.
Manchester City and Everton also made it through to the fourth round, City winning 3-0 at Norwich City in one of four all topflight clashes and Everton ending the hopes of fourth-tier Dagenham and Redbridge with a 2-0 win at Goodison Park.
League two (fourth tier) Wycombe Wanderers made sure their name will be in the hat for the fourth round with a 1-1 draw at home to the Premier League’s bottom club Aston Villa who have now gone 16 matches without a win.
Villa captain Micah Richards became embroiled in a heated pitchside debate with disgruntled supporters.
Villa’s travelling fans, dismayed to see a 10th successive winless game under coach Remi Garde, poured out their growing frustration in an impassioned discussion with defender Richards after his substitution in the dying minutes.
Richards stepped in to talk to a dozen fans next to the dugout after they expressed their anger about the result against the League Two side which left Villa without a victory in their last 16 matches.
One supporter, in the confrontation with Richards caught on television demanded to know where the players’ passion was, leaving the captain to protest to him: “We’re trying!”.
Hartlepool, also representing the fourth tier, took the lead against former English champions Derby County but lost 2-1 while Portsmouth, FA Cup winners in 2008 but now floundering in League Two, earned a 2-2 draw at Championship club Ipswich Town. Watford beat Premier League rivals Newcastle United 1-0, Crystal Palace overcame Southampton 2-1 and West Ham United edged past Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 at Upton Park.
Premier League West Bromwich Albion needed a lastminute equaliser to steal a 2-2 draw at home to Championship side Bristol City.
Manchester United hosted Sheffield United in the late kickoff.
Sarr 35
Mabena 49 FROM the dark clouds that hovered over Orlando Stadium to the lightning overhead and the rain that doused the heatwave ravaging Johannesburg, the weather mirrored the atmosphere in the Buccaneers’ camp in this PSL encounter.
A dark cloud hovers over coach Eric Tinkler who is under fire from the club to turn things around after a poor start to the domestic campaign.
He is looking to ensure that lightning doesn’t strike the same spot twice, and suffer the same fate as Roger de Sa who left in January after leading them to the final of the CAF Champions League which they lost to Egypt’s Al-Ahly.
Like the rain that brought