Southend hold Chelsea while Forest hammer City
Southend and Nottingham Forest pulled off shock results in the FA Cup 3rd Round today. Southend earned a replay against Premier League giants Chelsea while Nottingham Forest simply destroyed the richest club in the world, Manchester City.
Chelsea took control of the game at Stamford Bridge this afternoon half an hour into proceedings when Salomon Kalou headed in a Frank Lampard cross to give Luis Filipe Scolari's men the lead. It wasn't until the 90th minute that Southend grabbed the equaliser. Peter Clarke's late late header made Chelsea pay for missed chances and now the League One side can look forward to a replay at Roots Hall in a few weeks.
Meanwhile at the City of Manchester stadium, Mark Hughes' Manchester City were dumped out of the cup by Championship side Nottingham Forest. The day started with City unveiling their new £11 million left-back Wayne Bridge, however it ended with pure humiliation.
The visitors took the lead when Nathan Tyson took advantage of a mistake in the City defence to put Billy Davies' men 1-0 up. Robert Earnshaw doubled the lead just minutes later to all but guarantee Forest's place in the draw for the 4th round of the cup. Forest weren't finished there, they scored a third with just ten minutes left on the clock when Joe Garner, who was only on the pitch a matter of minutes, capitalise on a poor Didi Hamman throw-in to send the visiting fans home very happy indeed.
Another poor result for City which piles even more pressure on Mark Hughes. City were expected to progress with ease this afternoon and although City were poor, credit must go to Forest. What about Chelsea's home form. It continues to let them down. Chelsea had looked invincible at home before the season started but yet another poor result at Stamford Bridge, this time against Southend, must leave the fans wondering what has gone wrong.
Elsewhere in the FA Cup 3rd round it finished : Arsenal 3-1 Plymouth, Cardiff 2-0 Reading, Charlton 1-1 Norwich, Coventry 2-0 Kidderminster, Forest Green 3-4 Derby, Hartlepool 2-0 Stoke, Hull 0-0 Newcastle, Ipswich 3-0 Chesterfield, Kettering 2-1 Eastwood.
Leicester 0-0 Crystal Palace, Macclesfield 0-1 Everton, Middlesbrough 2-1 Barrow, Millwall 2-2 Crewe, Portsmouth 0-0 Bristol City, QPR 0-0 Burnley, Sheffield Wednesday 1-2 Fulham, Sunderland 2-1 Bolton, Torquay 1-0 Blackpool, Watford 1-0 Scunthorpe, West Brom 1-1 Peterborough, West Ham 3-0 Barnsley.