ARSENAL AND Liverpool produced five-star displays to cruise into the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup.
England forward Beth Mead and Stina Blackstenius both scored twice as the Gunners thrashed Bristol City 5-0, with Frida Maanum also on target for the home side in a game that saw Irish youngster Lia O’Leary make her debut for the Championship club.
Sam Kerr scored her first goal for the club as Liverpool also ran out 5-0 winners at West Ham, who had Amber Tysiak sent off for a foul on Taylor Hinds in the 38th minute.
The home side were already 2-0 down at that point following an own goal from Camila Saez and Ireland international Leanne Kiernan’s cool finish from a tight angle, with Grace Fisk and Lucy Parry also on the scoresheet before Kerr completed the rout.
Brighton ended their dismal recent run of form with a 4-1 win over Championship side Durham, the home side racing into a 3-0 lead after just 21 minutes thanks to goals from Bruna Vilamala and Guro Bergsvand either side of a Michelle Agyemang penalty.
Hannah Blake pulled one back for Durham in the second half, but Nikita Parris made it 4-1 in stopping time.
Everton knocked out last season’s runners-up Tottenham with a 2-0 win at Walton Hall Park, Kelly Gago scoring her first goal for the club and substitute Heather Payne sealing the victory in the 92nd minute.
Meanwhile, in Scotland, Payne’s Irish teammate Saoirse Noonan continued her fine individual season, hitting a brace in Celtic’s 6-0 victory over Queen’s Park.
BBC – Thierry Henry, Fabregas and Alan Shearer -an absolute snooze fest
@Ronan O Connor: Fr. Stone had also been lined up for the knockout stages!
@T Dawg: Fr Stone. Blast from the past. Lol.
Can’t wait for Roy Keane to sow it into England after they go out in the quarter finals
@Eoin Fitzgerald: i preferred it the first 5 times he did it. His rants can be funny but he’s poor pundit in my opinion, Little tactical insight, overly negative and its obvious he doesn’t do much research. On the flipside Neville’s forensic analysis of everything to the enth degree can get a bit old too. There’s a great interview with Brian Clough about pundits from the 80′s and robbing people of their ability to form their own insights and opinions about the game. I’m beginning to agree with him more and more as time goes on. Most of them are at best boring, at worst infuriating, and very few justify not going out to make the tae at half time.
@Fred spins kdb: I get the impression that there is no such thing a good pundit for you. If they’re analytic that’s not good. If they speak their mind, that’s not good either. I must say I like roy Keane as a pundit. I actually enjoy listening to what he has to say. Speaks the truth whether people like it or not.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: maybe you are right. I think Carragher is good.Neville is way too preachy and believing of his own hype these days for me. I get the sense he believes he is the man who single handedly took down to the super league, as if working for sky sports is no way connected to gouging money from the everyday football fan. I think Roy can be a good listen to at times, but he doesn’t have much to offer in terms of genuine insight, he kind of lost me with his ‘everyone who can trap the ball is an international these days’. Tearing the back off players becomes kind of less edgy and more boring and predictable if you are doing it all time.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: think Brian Kerr is good aswell. Unreal knowledge and engaging speaker.
I’m guessing RTE still has all the euro games yeah?? Even though we didn’t qualify
@Aidan: Yeah they do with Richie Sadlier, Kevin Doyle and Damien Duff.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: what a bore ! ITV for me
@Gary O: RTE panel hasn’t been the same since Liam, Johnny and Dunphy left (Didi too, hopefully he can back after pandemic)
@Eoin Fitzgerald: agreed 100%