News form the English FA Cup games from last week, including big shocks, news from Scotland and a fan attacking a football player on the pitch. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast. Explanations of key vocabulary (in bold) can be found at the foot of the post.
The Good
It was the third round of the FA Cup last week, that’s the week the big teams from the top two divisions join the competition, and there were a hat full of cup shocks. Among the best performances by the minnows of the football leagues in England were those by Stevenage FC and Crawley Town. Stevenage from the fourth tier of the football league took on Newcastle from the Premier League and comfortably beat the Tyneside club 3-1. Crawley Town, a non-league side, also pulled off a cup shock by beating Championship side Derby 2-1 with a goal by Torres in extra time – Sergio Torres that is, not Fernando. In the fourth round Stevenage were drawn at home against Reading from the Championship, while Crawley will travel to Torquay from the fourth tier of English football. Well done to those two sides
The Bad
Right, for my bad I am going to focus on Celtic football club as they have not had the best of weeks. First up, their manager Neil Lennon was given a 6-match suspension after his disagreements with referees, his side were then drawn against Rangers in the Scottish Cup, while his team could only manage a draw with the bottom club Hamilton earlier in the week. The pressure seems to be mounting on Lennon and Celtic.
The Ugly
As for ugly, I am going to return to Damon’s good and talk about Stevenage’s great win over Newcastle which was marred by a fan running on to the pitch and punching one of the home players after the game had ended. The fan has been subsequently arrested but it was an unseemly end to a great day for the lower league club.
Vocabulary
a hat full: a lot, many
minnow: a small team, a team from a lower division (a minnow is a very small fish)
tier: level, division, rank
Tyneside: an area of north-eastern England
to pull off: to achieve a surprising result, to do something most people thought would be very difficult
to be mounting: Increasing
was marred: Was spoiled
an unseemly end: Ugly, not very classy
