Johnny Nicholson: Kidderminster and Nottingham Forest provide moments of FA Cup magic

An absolutely infuriating decision, especially for Kidderminster on one of the greatest days in their history.

Fifteen minutes of added time could not deny them. There was a pitch invasion on a cold January afternoon, and for a moment it was still 1973, and it felt like the FA Cup mattered like it used to. Let’s hope they humiliate West Ham in the next round live on TV.

Cole Palmer impresses

Unlike many other clubs, Manchester City have strength in depth, and they play a top team in cup games. They were always going to beat Swindon, but Cole Palmer really impressed on the right. The 19-year-old has already played for England at every age level up to U21, and has the air of a kid with lots of confidence. He’s still at the ‘playing for fun’ stage. Let’s hope he never loses that joy.

Fear of booting it long #1

The Swindon game was marked by a pathetic goal for City when Swindon tried and failed to pass it out from the back and gave it away on the edge of their own box. The lesson? Don’t pretend you’re better than you are. There’s nothing wrong with booting it out of defence.

Swindon gaffer Ben Garner needs to learn to shape his style of play around his player’s capabilities, not his own pretensions.

Fear of booting it long #2

The same point applies to Palace, who conceded a goal in the first half against Millwall by trying to play it out. The ball should’ve been cleared, instead they were briefly deluded that they were good enough to pass it out. They were not. Note how many times that happens every season. Each goal only happens because of player and managerial fear of looking old-fashioned by clearing it. Pathetic.

Lovely Olise

Michael Olise almost single-handedly won Palace the tie against Millwall with a mesmerising 20 minutes of wing play which brought comparison of Arjen Robben at his finest. An £8m (€9,5m) signing from Reading, the 20-year-old really caught the eye, and looks like a tremendous prospect.

A game played in the muck and nettles

This is exactly what most fans love most about cup football, as Middlesbrough’s game at Mansfield Town’s Field Mill was played out in pouring rain and on a pitch that was cutting up. The opening Boro goal by Uche Ikpeazu was a classic. As the Stags tried to wrestle him to the ground, he fended them off and buried a 25-yarder in the top corner. The fourth-tier Stags fell two behind but pulled it back level, only for Boro to score in injury time.

For football fans who know these sorts of games are the soul and guts of the game, it was a real treat.

A great win for Hartlepool United

Pools beat Blackpool who are two leagues above them. Their 2-1 win was secured by 18-year-old Joe Grey, a product of the legendary Wallsend Boys Club, which counts Alan Shearer amongst its many alumni. It’ll be a day the boy never forgets, and a triumph for a club that has struggled for so long.

A man called Ironside

Playing Cambridge United of the third tier at St James’ Park was Newcastle United’s 400th cup game. Their hopeless centre-backs were bossed all afternoon by the imposing figure of Middlesbrough-born, Joe Ironside, an old-school striker who harasses, bullies, and barges his way around.

A less Premier League-type striker you couldn’t imagine, and Newcastle could not deal with him, or with an organised, well-drilled Cambridge team. Cambridge should’ve also had a penalty, but VAR decided it couldn’t possibly overrule the referees call, even though it absolutely was a penalty. VAR also took forever to decide whether Cambridge United’s goal was offside. Minutes passed. If it’s that close, you have to give it. And they did.

But nothing could deny the Us. They put their illustrious hosts to the sword to get to the fourth round for only the second time in 21 years. They will be disappointed to have drawn Luton at home. Mark Bonner, who got the club promoted last season, looked by far the better of the two coaches.

Eddie, how?

What is Eddie Howe’s USP? If it is anything, it is taking Bournemouth through the leagues to the top. But that’s not anything like his job at Newcastle. He is well-proven as a poor defensive coach, and against Cambridge his defenders were made to look foolish by a physical striker, and Howe shows no sign of being able to shape Newcastle into a coherent side.

They are awful, and playing worse than under Steve Bruce. Can you imagine the fan reaction if this result had happened under the old regime? The fact is, there has been no new-manager bounce, rather he’s overseen a new slump. Fans are blaming the players, but they have played much better than this. Is Howe out of his depth?

If NUFC fans had not drunk so desperately deep of the PIF’s bloody Kool-Aid, they should be questioning if he is the man for this job. But they daren’t. You can spend as much money as you like, but if your manager has no idea how to set up a team with the players available to him, then it makes little difference. Many are saying the new Newcastle owners are useless amateurs who don’t know what they’re doing. Results like Saturday’s rather underlines that view.

An FA Cup factoid

No side has been beaten in the third round more than Plymouth and QPR, but both won on Saturday. Rangers 8 -7 on pens. They were rewarded with trips to Chelsea and Peterborough in the next round.

Burnley lose bark and bite

With Sean Dyche stricken with Covid, Burnley had to do without his bark in their ear, and promptly lost to Huddersfield 2-1 after taking the lead. There is little difference between poor Premier League sides and good Championship sides, and this was proof once again of that fact. There’s a chance that the Terriers may replace them in the Premier League next season.

Lower down, but better off

If there’s not much difference between lower Premier League clubs and top Championship teams, the same applies between the third, fourth and fifth tiers in a one-off game. Boreham Wood beat Wimbledon 2-0 with two shots on target and lie sixth in the fifth tier, Wimbledon 18th in the third. If anything, the lower-league side were better.

This is why many National League sides who get promoted do well in the Football League, at least initially. This was a wonderful win for The Wood, and one set to live long in the memory.

Spurs have shallow pool of talent

Tottenham stank their fancy stadium up yesterday, as usual. The £65m (€77.7m) Spurs paid for Tanguy Ndombele looks a frivolous decision. He was booed off after a rotten performance and, if he wasn’t so expensive, he would surely be sold this month.

But only another idiotic Premier League club with more money than sense would pay such stupid money so they’re stuck with him. When they don’t field their first 13, Tottenham are poor. It’s remarkable the degree to which so many top-flight clubs are in a similar position. To come from behind in order to beat Morecambe, they needed to be gifted three goals in the last 16 minutes, through three massive mistakes.

These clubs pay the top players so much they have nothing left to build depth in the squad, but surely they should be able to field a better mob than the rubbish that turned up here for over an hour. They were embarrassing. Morecambe can dine out for years on a brilliant first-half display.

Moaning Moyes

West Ham manager David Moyes has said his club can’t compete on all fronts. This is the typical small-club mentality that Moyes specialises in. I suspect he thinks it takes the pressure off his team, but it just makes him look stupid. West Ham is one of the richest clubs on God’s Earth.

To make out, as Moyes does, that they’re down to the bare bones all the time smacks of the multi-millionaire complaining they are not a billionaire. They scraped past Leeds via another appalling VAR decision, but with hundreds of millions of pounds spent on the squad, they’ve no chance of winning the league, they’re out of the League Cup, all they’ve got is the Europa League and the FA Cup, so they should be fielding their best team.

We’re not idiots, Davey boy. Shut up, play football, and stop pretending you’re being hard done by.

Should VAR be used?

Do we want a single competition governed in two different ways? No. We don’t want VAR at all. Did you see some of the decisions they made? Appalling.

Shot-shy Gunners picked off

Nottingham Forest v Arsenal was a match of few chances, with only a Nuno Tavares strop at being subbed after 35 minutes to offer as entertainment. Arsenal seemed to slowly but surely go to sleep, played sloppily and eventually, with 10 minutes to go, let 33-year-old journeyman Lewis Grabbon in to score.

Forest is his 12th club, and with 11 goals in 25 games so far this season, he’s in great form. In the whole game, Arsenal did not have a shot on target, and deserved to lose.