I hope you’re enjoying my Football Manager 2017 experiment here on Fuller FM. The Counties Championship is in full flow, but that will take a back seat today, as I’ve got a hankering for some knockout action.
We’ve now seen everybody at least once in the County Cup. 16 teams have made it through to the third round, but we’ve also had some major casualties along the way. You can revisit Round 2 right here if you want to see how the carnage unfolded last time out.
When you’re ready, let’s dive into Round 3 and find out if the cup has even more magic to conjure up…
ROUND 3 DRAW
I’ll begin this post by recapping the third-round draw:
Somerset vs Shropshire
Leicestershire vs Bedfordshire
West Yorkshire vs Hampshire
South London vs Buckinghamshire
Essex vs Nottinghamshire
Norfolk vs Greater Manchester
Derbyshire vs Tyne & Wear
Berkshire vs Bristol
There’s a quirk in this database that means this round has been scheduled for Tuesday 15 November – right at the end of an international break. Most of these matches are still taking place on those days, only without those players involved with England or other national teams.
A couple of fixtures, though, have been pushed back a week to Wednesday 23 November. These are South London’s divisional derby against Buckinghamshire, and Greater Manchester’s trip to Norfolk. Both Alan Pardew and Gary Neville would’ve been without several players on international duty, so it wouldn’t have been fair on their teams to play on the original dates.
As for the others, things would go ahead as planned. Hampshire would make the long journey north to West Yorkshire, hoping to move a step closer to cup glory. Bristol’s visit to Berkshire was another tie that was expected to be very competitive.
There were a couple of all-East ties to look forward to when Essex and Leicestershire respectively played host to Nottinghamshire and Bedfordshire. Somerset and Shropshire would renew their West league rivalry in the cup, while Tyne & Wear would head to the East Midlands to take on Derbyshire.
ROUND 3 RESULTS
SOMERSET 0-2 SHROPSHIRE
Somerset made the brighter start in this all-West affair. Striker Ashley Barnes forced a couple of early saves out of Shropshire’s Welsh/American keeper Boaz Myhill, who also denied winger Scott Sinclair a great solo goal in the 34th minute.
By the 41st minute, though, Shropshire had edged in front through another Welsh international. Tom Bradshaw’s predatory instinct saw him get to Elliott Bennett’s drilled cross before home defender Tyrone Mings and stab in the opening goal.
Somerset’s hopes were dashed seven minutes into the second half, thanks to a truly bizarre decision from Ben Hamer. The goalkeeper came way out of his six-yard box to HEAD away a long ball from Salop defender Lee Collins… but his clearance only went as far as Bennett. The ex-Norwich winger finished with ease, and Bernard McNally’s side were through to the Quarter Finals.
LEICESTERSHIRE 0-1 BEDFORDSHIRE
Two sides from the East did battle in Leicester, and the home fans didn’t have much to smile about in the 14th minute. Bedfordshire midfielder Rob Sinclair stroked a lovely ball into the box for striker Sean Maguire to volley goalwards. A flapping Chris Kirkland couldn’t keep the ball out of his net, and Leicestershire were behind.
The hosts looked to respond within three minutes, but a brilliant save from Dean Brill denied Che Adams a quick equaliser. Beds continued to hold firm in the first half and carried a narrow 1-0 lead into the second.
That second period was a tale of two right-backs with the same first name. Leicestershire’s Darnell Johnson was concussed in a 65th-minute clash of heads with Bedfordshire forward Keshi Anderson, ending his game early. As for the visiting right-back, Darnell Furlong was named ‘man of the match’ after helping his team reach the last eight.
WEST YORKSHIRE 2-1 HAMPSHIRE [after extra-time]
West Yorkshire took the lead against Hampshire after just 10 minutes. Hants cleared away successive deliveries into the box from midfielder Kalvin Phillips but couldn’t stop centre-back Andre Wisdom from firing home a 25-yarder. The home team could have moved further ahead on the half-hour, but Aaron Lennon hit the bar.
Hampshire’s response wasn’t swift, but when it did come, it came from John Swift. The young playmaker exploited a gap in the home defence to latch onto Danny Ings’ through-ball and put it past David Stockdale. Though West Yorkshire had arguably been the better side throughout this match, extra-time loomed.
Stuart McCall’s frustration at not killing the match off in 90 minutes would soon be eased. Less than two minutes into the additional half-hour, a rapid counter-attack ended with substitute midfielder Jonny Howson stroking Cameron Jerome’s pass home. Hants couldn’t reply to that, and their cup run was over.
SOUTH LONDON 1-0 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE [after extra-time]
Buckinghamshire had one great chance to put their highly-fancied divisional rivals on the ropes. Nine minutes before half-time, Bucks defender Brendan Galloway was pushed in the box by South London counterpart Joe Gomez. Simon Church took the spot-kick, but the fierce Charlton crowd got to him as he fired straight at goalkeeper Rob Elliot.
From that point on, South London dictated terms without ever showing much of a killer instinct. The likes of Michail Antonio and Wilfried Zaha were too wasteful in front of goal, and after 90 goalless minutes, another 30 would be needed.
South London eventually dealt the decisive blow in the 108th minute, thanks to an error of judgment from Buckinghamshire’s goalkeeper. Matt Ingram strayed from his line to try and push Antonio’s long throw out of harm’s way. He only succeeded in finding midfielder Ben Watson, whose shot had a clear path to goal, and that was that.
ESSEX 3-2 NOTTINGHAMSHIRE [after extra-time]
The first half of this clash of two East foes saw plenty of goalmouth action, but no goals. That all changed after the break, when a well-worked passing move saw Gary Hooper put Essex ahead on 50 minutes. Winger Michael Kightly doubled their lead after 73 minutes, emphatically firing in Benik Afobe’s well-weighted through-ball.
But Nottinghamshire were not quite vanquished. Eight minutes from time, Essex goalie Daniel Bentley could only fire a Tyler Walker shot into the path of Kris Commons, who buried the rebound from a tight angle. The veteran attacking midfielder scored again six minutes later, finishing Walker’s right-wing cross at the far post.
Squandering a 2-0 lead didn’t seem to affect the hosts, as they recomposed in extra-time and moved back in front on 112 minutes. Left-back Charlie Daniels, who’d bruised his head earlier on, pounced on the loose ball after team-mate Afobe was tackled by Aden Flint. With that, Chris Hughton and his Essex boys moved closer to cup glory.
NORFOLK 4-7 GREATER MANCHESTER
And now we come to the most bizarre match in the County Cup so far! Greater Manchester might have been heavy favourites in Norwich, but Norfolk stormed in front after just 21 seconds through teenage midfielder Louis McIntosh. Some lazy Mancunian defending allowed the more experienced Ian Henderson to double Norfolk’s lead a little over four minutes later.
It was at that point that GM started to buck their ideas up. Zach Clough’s 17th-minute header from Marcus Rashford’s cross got them off the mark, and the same man powered Ravel Morrison’s centre home eight minutes later to equalise. Game well and truly on!
Buoyed by his assist, the enigmatic Ravel exploded into life over the rest of the first half. After a couple of composed finishes put Gary Neville’s charges into a 4-2 lead, Morrison played in Clough for a fifth away goal just before half-time. Cloughie surged past his marker Alex Bruce before a cool low shot secured his hat-trick.
And even after all that, the ex-Bolton frontman wasn’t finished! Clough got his fourth goal in the 51st minute, in between a couple more Norfolk goals from Henderson and McIntosh. The scoreline stayed at 6-4 to Greater Manchester until injury-time, when Morrison’s direct free-kick beat Declan Rudd to complete his hat-trick – and an incredible attacking display.
DERBYSHIRE 2-0 TYNE & WEAR
Time ran out for Tyne & Wear in the County Cup when they travelled to Derbyshire. In truth, they never really recovered after losing Chris Basham on the half-hour mark, with the midfielder coming off worse from a collision with counterpart Jordon Mutch.
Four minutes after Basham’s departure, the north-easterners’ defence was breached. Ben Osborn floated a first-time cross from the left wing, and the in-form Ashley Hunter was on hand to flick home Derbyshire’s opening goal.
Another Osborn cross helped Nigel Clough’s team rubber-stamp their Quarter Final place late in the second period. His delivery ricocheted off Tyne & Wear full-back Steven Taylor and deflected kindly to Jordon, whose shot proved too much for James Montgomery. There would be no cup heroics to rival the visiting goalkeeper’s famous Sunderland namesake.
BERKSHIRE 0-0 BRISTOL [Bristol win 4-2 on penalties]
I’ve said something like this before many times and I’ll say it again: having more shots does not mean you should score more goals. Berkshire had 22 attempts (around half of which were inside the penalty area) but failed to make any of them count against a resolute Bristol defence led superbly by Gary Warren.
Bristol manager Keith Curle drew on all his defensive expertise to help his side withstand everything Berks could throw at them. Their counter-attacks at the other end weren’t very effective, but crucially, they kept the deadlock intact for two hours to force a penalty shoot-out.
Though Reuben Reid hit the post for Bristol, he was redeemed by his goalkeeper Jack Butland producing saves to keep out Liam Bridcutt and Matty Cash. Those saves gave Ollie Clarke the opportunity to secure a 4-2 shoot-out win for the Bristolians with their fifth penalty, which he did with aplomb!
QUARTER FINAL DRAW
Now that’s what I call a thrilling third round! Only one team from the South remains in contention, while we almost lost Greater Manchester to one of the championship’s underdogs! What the heck will happen next?
Here’s what awaits our elite eight in the Quarter Finals in January:
West Yorkshire vs Bristol
Greater Manchester vs Derbyshire
Essex vs Shropshire
Bedfordshire vs South London
Fresh from an almighty scare in Norwich, Greater Manchester will have to stave off another threat from the East. Cloughie junior and his Derbyshire outfit are tougher than they look on paper, so the Mancs can’t afford to get complacent.
Bedfordshire will also have high hopes of inflicting another cup upset. They famously accounted for North London in Round 2, and now they’ve got a date with South London to prepare for in Luton.
The last of our eastern trio – divisional leaders Essex – have a favourable home draw against Shropshire. Mind you, though I still have doubts about Bernard McNally’s coaching credentials, he’s done a surprisingly fine job in Salop to date.
Lastly, but not leastly, West Yorkshire can start planning for another visit from afar. Bristol have already shown that they can survive a home onslaught and hold their nerve in a penalty shoot-out, so write them off at your peril.
That will be our last County Cup update for a little while. I want to cover the Quarter Finals and Semi Finals together in the same post, so that’ll be ready in about three weeks.
In the meantime, there’s a feast of Counties Championship action to gorge on. I’ll be covering December’s matches over TWO updates next week. We’ll get the latest from the North and East divisions on Monday, while the South and West divisions will be our focus on Friday.
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