The Carling Cup started to heat up last night. Well, this is about as good as it’s likely to get.
Leeds 0 – 1 Liverpool
Simon Grayson’s impressive League One side turned back the clock a few years, forcing a consistently high tempo while passing neatly throughout this tie. They could consider themselves unfortunate to bow out to David Ngog’s second-half winner, while Javier Mascherano was arguably lucky not to be sent off for raising an arm to Jermaine Beckford. Indeed, Liverpool struggled early on, but as they first half wore on the reds began to assert their authority. Midway through the second half, the Merseysiders struck, David Ngog controlled Mascherano’s mis-hit shot and the striker spun and fired home from 10-yards out.
Arsenal 2 – 0 West Brom
Controversy pursues Arsenal everywhere these days. The Baggies were severely impaired by having to play the final hour with 10 men after Jerome Thomas’s sending off. Arsenal initially struggled to make their numerical advantage tell, but when Sanchez Watt had opened the scoring on 68 minutes, West Brom were really up against it, with sub Carlos Vela tapping in the winner eight minutes later.
Stoke 4 – 3 Blackpool
The Championship side took an emphatic two-goal lead, with a goal either side of half-time through David Vaughan and Billy Clarke. Stoke hit back though, with three quick-fire goals in the space of five minutes from Danny Higginbotham, Matt Etherington and Ricardo Fuller, only for Ben Burgess to equalise a mere minute later. With the game heading into extra time Andy Griffin was the unlikely hero in the 96th minute of an entertaining encounter.
