The Sporting Hack

Valentine’s spirit will soon make way for FA Cup romance this weekend as fans of League 1 club Doncaster Rovers could see their side break new ground when they face Premier League outfit Crystal Palace. It wasn’t so much Cupid’s arrow as Ian Wright’s hand which bequeathed Doncaster a home tie against former England boss Roy Hodgson’s side and it is they who stand in the way of the Yorkshiremen penning a previously untold chapter in their 140-year history. A win against the two-time runners up would present the play-off hopefuls with another sizeable cash injection – doubling their prize money alone to a figure in the region of £750,000 – but the scent of history making is what appeals most to 22 goal striker, John Marquis. “Whether this Doncaster team does or doesn’t get through, we’ve already made a bit of history in being the first for 63 years (to get to the fifth round) but if we can just go that next step then in 50 or 60 years from now, people will hopefully be talk...

Manchester City 2-3 Manchester United FA Cup R3, Etihad Stadium, Att: 46,808 Two headed goals from Wayne Rooney helped Manchester United put out arch-rivals, and Cup holders, Manchester City in one of the most compelling FA Cup games of all time. A re-run of last season’s FA Cup semi-final provided the spectacle for an unforgettable derby day, which at half time seemed to be going only one way after Rooney’s double (right) sandwiched Danny Welbeck’s acrobatic volley which saw the visitors enter the break with a 3-0 lead. A City fightback seemed all the more improbable on 12 minutes, when, at 1-0 down, Vincent Kompany was shown a contentious straight red card by referee Chris Foy for a two-footed lunge on Nani. If it looked like United were going to return the 6-1 drubbing they received earlier on in the season with interest then all inside the Etihad Stadium, and across the country were wrong. Goals from Aleksandar Kolarov and Sergio Aguero within 20 minutes of the interval set up...