Skip to main content

Heartbreaking

So close....: Notts County 2 - 2 Wigan

A late Ben Watson goal allowed Wigan to claw back a two-goal deficit and force League Two's Notts County to an FA Cup replay just when a shock looked likely.

Watson struck from six yards after County failed to deal with a corner.

County had gone into the break 2-0 ahead thanks to a close-range strike from the impressive Lee Hughes and Ben Davies' dipping free-kick.

But Jason Scotland combined with Hugo Rodallega to beat Kasper Schmeichel and make it 2-1 before Watson's equaliser.

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez had warned his side that their opponents possessed players who were more than capable of playing higher up than League Two.

On this display, Notts County certainly proved that to be case, with midfielders Davies and Neil Bishop shining under the FA Cup spotlight.

But the Magpies did not have quite enough quality to put Wigan to the sword as the Latics, 62 league places above their hosts, dominated the second half and take the match to a replay.

I know there are those who say the FA Cup has lost its shine, but this is the kind of thing that makes it such an intriguing thing for the average American sports fan. Hell, in this country you have college football and basketball teams that refuse to schedule lesser teams that could actually threaten them in order to protect their status as the "big boys." It's a damn shame because an event like the FA Cup does provide the potential for great theater.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Early Thoughts on City 2025

There are few things harder to keep track of than an MLS side in their off-season, at least for me. Despite the fact it takes place roughly during the time the MLB Hot Stove season is in full swing, it is nowhere near as easy to follow along with as baseball. Part of it is how disconnected MLS is with the international soccer calendar. St. Louis City SC is still digesting the moves it made last summer even though those players have already played important games for the club. It is all weird and disjointed, and I always feel like I am playing catch-up. Happily, the moves made in the off-season this year were not numerous.  German Timo Baumgartl comes over from Europe as an option at center back, which is good because that was a position that was a little rocky for City last season. Given his own troubles over the last few seasons (cancer and uneven play in the aftermath of that), a spell with City can give Baumgartl a chance to have a re-set. Given his pedigree and the fact City si...

Blues Fall Off a Cliff

 Hockey seasons will have their ups and downs. For whatever reason, be it injuries, a challenging schedule, an inexplicable loss of form, it is difficult for teams to maintain a good level of compete for an entire season. The good teams just limit their funks. The St. Louis Blues, however, are not a good team. They are a poor team, and poor teams sink under the weight of "here we go again" night after night.  I will admit I only watched the first two periods of last night's 5-0 loss to a Colorado team that had been scuffling of late. Two periods were more than enough to get the gist of it. It was also enough to lead me to a diagnosis as to what ails the team. It isn't that they are young and are going through growing pains. No, the reason the Blues are so bad is that the veterans who are being paid to be the backbone of this team are not doing their jobs. I'm talking about Schenn, Buchnevich, Faulk, and even Binnington and Parayko. Over $30M of the salary cap is b...

A Note of Optimism About the Note

 If you have been trying to watch the St. Louis Blues attempt to play hockey of late it would be hard to believe the word optimism could ever be in play. The losses continue relentlessly, often in the "never in the game" style, but increasingly in a "lose from winning position" flair which is enough to make someone turn on the news for an upbeat change of pace. (Wow, plane crashes and LUNACY!) This team still can't score with the regularity needed to win consistently in this league. The coaching staff knows they have precious few natural goal scorers (one is precious few), so they attempt to make up for it by getting what I call "process" goals, i.e. goals scored by virtue of constant pressure, crazy bounces, accidental deflections, etc. Basically, any goal you can get from a player who doesn't have the knack for scoring them on their own. The Blues are something like zero for their last 12-15 breakaway chances, and zero for their last 25-30 2 on 1...