FA Cup 5th round blog

King George V was on the throne, HH Asquith was Prime Minister, Babe Ruth signed his first Minor League baseball contract, Charlie Chaplin introduced his tramp character in his second movie, the outbreak of the First World War was only five months away and Southern League Queens Park Rangers knocked Second Division Birmingham out of the FA Cup at St Andrew’s.

It was February 1914 and, up to Lincoln City’s sensational win at Burnley 103 years later, it was the last time that a non-league had reached the last eight of the FA Cup.

Along with League One Millwall eliminating the reigning Premier League champions and the mighty Arsenal’s visit to humble Sutton United, it’s been another amazing chapter in the rich history of the world’s most famous cup competition.

Here’s our round-up of this season’s 5th round ties.

Burnley v Lincoln City

  • National League leaders Lincoln City became the first non-league team to reach the last eight of the FA Cup since Queens Park Rangers in 1913-14. That was the season that Burnley won the Cup for the only time in their history. City therefore became the first non-league side to reach the FA Cup 6th round since the introduction of the current format in 1925-26.
  • This is only the third time that a non-league club had defeated four league clubs in the same FA Cup season (also Tottenham Hotspur in 1901 and Telford United in 1985).
  • The Imps became only the third non-league team to keep a clean sheet at a Premier League ground in the FA Cup (also Exeter City at Manchester United in January 2005 and Luton Town at Norwich City in January 2013).
  • This was the first time they had played in the 5th round of the FA Cup since 1886-87 and they had now reached the quarter-finals for the first time in their 133-year history.
  • This was City’s sixth victory in this FA Cup run. The FA Cup winners usually need to win six games to lift the trophy.
  • This was only the second time that a Premier League club had been knocked out of the FA Cup by non-league opposition and Burnley’s Andre Gray was involved in both games. He was in the victorious Luton Town team that beat Norwich City in January 2013.
  • Burnley were now the victims in two of the last four occasions when a non-league team has won a FA Cup tie at a top division venue (also Wimbledon in January 1975).
  • Prior to this tie, the Clarets had won seven and drawn one of their last eight home games in all competitions. They had now lost four of their last 30 league and cup games at Turf Moor (won 20).
  • Burnley are currently in 12th position in the Premier League; 81 places above the Imps in football’s pyramid.
  • On the same day as this game, in a repeat of events 103 years earlier, Queens Park Rangers won 4-1 against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s in the League Championship.

Huddersfield Town v Manchester City

  • Huddersfield Town kept a clean sheet against top division opposition in the FA Cup for the first time since a 4th round replay against Stoke City at Leeds Road on 26 January 1971.
  • Town are now unbeaten in seven consecutive games in all competitions but this result ended a run of six wins in a row.
  • The Terriers haven’t reached the 6th round of the FA Cup since 1971-72 when they lost at Birmingham City.
  • The attendance of 24,129 was a new record for football match at the stadium. The previous record was 23,678 for the visit of Liverpool in the 3rd round of the FA Cup on 12 December 1999.
  • A crowd of 24,375 witnessed the meeting of England and Ireland in the rugby league World Cup on 2 November 2013.
  • Manchester City have won one of their last four FA Cup games against lower division opposition.
  • City have now conceded one goal in their last five games in all competitions.
  • It was the sixth time in a row that they had been drawn away in the FA Cup.
  • For the first time, there will be no replays this season from the quarter-finals onwards so Manchester City and Huddersfield Town will contest the last replay of the 2016-17 season.

Middlesbrough v Oxford United

  • This was the first meeting between Middlesbrough and Oxford United in a cup competition.
  • Middlesbrough scored two first-half goals for the first time since their 3-0 win against Swansea City in the Premier League on 17 December 2016.
  • Boro have not lost an FA Cup home match against lower division opposition since the 6th round in 2007-08 when they lost against Cardiff City.
  • Oxford United are the top scoring team in the FA Cup so far in this season with 16 goals. They only conceded twice on their road to the 5th round.
  • This was the first time the Us’ had reached the 5th round since 1994, when they were knocked out by Chelsea. The only time they have made it to the 6th round was in 1963-64 when they lost Preston North End.

Millwall v Leicester City

  • Millwall beat England’s reigning league champions in a senior game for the first time since a 3-1 win against Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup on 8 January 1927.
  • The Lions have eliminated three top division teams in the same FA Cup run for the first time since 1936-37.
  • They had now won five consecutive FA Cup matches for only the second time after a record run of six in a row from November 1936 to March 1937.
  • Millwall have now lost only one of their last 11 FA Cup home matches (won eight); the 2-1 second-round defeat against Wycombe Wanderers last season.
  • Match-winner Shaun Cummings was a trainee at Chelsea when Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri was in charge at Stamford Bridge.
  • Leicester City failed to score for the seventh time in ten league and cup games in 2017.
  • It was City’s first FA Cup defeat to a side in the third tier or lower since they were knocked out by Wycombe Wanderers in the 6th round on 10 March 2001.
  • They had now lost six of their seven games this season directly before a Champions League fixture (drawn one).

Wolverhampton Wanderers v Chelsea

  • Chelsea have now won ten of their last 11 games in all competitions against Wolverhampton Wanderers, including eight clean sheets.
  • Pedro has now scored in the 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds of this season’s FA Cup.
  • The attendance of 30,193 was the highest at Molineux since Wolverhampton Wanderers’ FA Cup 6th round replay with Middlesbrough on 10 March 1981 that was witnessed by 40,524.
  • This was Wolves’ fourth successive defeat in all competitions and they haven’t scored in any of the last three.
  • The last time Wolves won a home match against Premier League opposition in the FA Cup was a 3-2 3rd round success against Newcastle United on 5 January 2003.
  • They had won at Stoke City and Liverpool in this season’s FA Cup run. Not since winning the trophy in 1960 had they knocked out more top division teams in a season (four).

Fulham v Tottenham Hotspur

  • Tottenham Hotspur have now progressed from 13 of their last 14 FA Cup ties against teams from lower divisions.
  • In netting a hat-trick, Harry Kane has now scored nine goals in nine appearances for Tottenham Hotspur in 2017.
  • He has now scored 20 goals in his last 22 London derbies in all competitions.
  • His only previous goal for Spurs in the FA Cup was a penalty in last season’s 3rd round against Leicester City. He also scored twice when on loan at Millwall in 2011-12 in a 5-0 3rd round replay win against Dagenham & Redbridge.
  • Harry has now scored five hat-tricks for Spurs in all competitions.
  • It was Tottenham Hotspur’s first hat-trick in the FA Cup since Jermain Defoe in a 4th round replay at Leeds United on 3 February 2010.

Blackburn Rovers v Manchester United

  • Manchester United have progressed from each of their last 11 FA Cup ties against teams from a lower division.
  • Along with Anthony Martial, Zlatan Ibrahimović is now United’s joint-leading scorer in all competitions since the start of the 2015-16 season (24 goals) despite only joining in July 2016.
  • Along with Nathan Redmond, 35 year-old Zlatan is the current Premier League player who has played in the most games in all competitions this season (both 36 games).
  • The Sweden superstar has now scored in the FA Cup, Coppa Italia, Copa del Rey and Coupe de France.
  • Blackburn Rovers have kept only one clean sheet in their last 11 home games in the FA Cup and League Cup.
  • Rovers were the last Championship club to be knocked out of this season’s FA Cup competition.

Sutton United v Arsenal

  • Sutton United midfielder Craig Eastmond played ten times for Arsenal between October 2009 and November 2010, including one appearance in the FA Cup, while forward Roarie Deacon also started his career with the Gunners but failed to make the first team grade.
  • Theo Walcott became the 18th player to score 100 goals for Arsenal in all competitions.
  • This game was watched by the lowest attendance for a senior Arsenal game since 4,554 saw the Gunners’ First Division game against Leeds United at Highbury on 5 May 1966.
  • While Sutton were playing in the 5th round FA Cup tie for the first time in their history, this was Arsenal 54th game at this stage since the current format was introduced in 1925-26.
  • United remain as the last non-league team to win a home FA Cup home tie against top division opposition (versus Coventry City in 1989).
  • Having been drawn against Lincoln City in the quarter-finals, Arsenal would now face non-league teams in consecutive FA Cup rounds for the first time since the 1908-09 season when they played Croydon Common and Millwall Athletic, both of the Southern League.
  • The two teams were separated by 105 places in the football pyramid.

 

 

FA Cup 5th round blog

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