FA Cup Third Round: Cardiff add to Welsh woe by crashing out to Shrewsbury Town
Shaun Jeffers’ equaliser for Yeovil in added time denied Carlisle a place in the fourth round
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Your support makes all the difference.Shrewsbury Town bounced back from a 7-1 mauling in their previous League One game to knock Championship side Cardiff City out of the FA Cup and increase the pressure on the Bluebirds’ manager, Russell Slade.
It completed an awful day for Wales in the competition after Swansea City were humbled by League Two Oxford United.
Shrewsbury were thrashed by Chesterfield the previous weekend but Micky Mellon’s side put that behind them to win 1-0 at Cardiff. Mellon made five changes and one of his new faces, striker Andy Mangan, who returned to the club on loan from Tranmere on Thursday, headed home the winner after 62 minutes.
“Football just drives me up the wall, one week we can have a performance like against Chesterfield and then they do this,” Mellon said.
“The players were fantastic and stuck to the game plan that we had worked so hard on during the week and got their rewards for that.”
Cardiff made nine changes to their starting line-up from the 1-0 win over Blackburn but in front of a crowd of 4,782 – the second lowest-ever crowd at the Cardiff City Stadium – missed a number of good chances, Federico Macheda the chief culprit.
“We made a lot of changes but there are no excuses, I sent out a team with enough ammunition to get a positive result,” Slade said.
“We were a little bit wasteful in front of goal and then we’ve let ourselves down by not picking up their players in our box and they’ve scored.
“Of course, I’m prepared to take the criticism, all managers have to take that and the numbers don’t lie.”
Carlisle manager Keith Curle admitted his players were feeling frustrated after a late Yeovil equaliser denied them a place in the fourth round. The League Two side were forced to stage the match at Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road because Brunton Park remains out of action after damage caused by Storm Desmond last month. Shaun Jeffers’ leveller to make it 2-2 in added time dented romantic dreams of returning to Cumbria with a chance of facing one of the big clubs in the next round.
“The pitch made it difficult for us to play the way we wanted to play, but we took the lead twice and should have been able to see the game out,” Curle said.
“There is an air of disappointment because we knew we had done enough to win the game. The Yeovil goals were pretty basic. We showed a bit of naivety but we have a replay to look forward to and we are still in the hat.”
Yeovil’s manager, Darren Way, was full of praise for Jeffers’ goal. “It was a great finish,” he said. “Carlisle slowed the game down and hit direct balls, making it difficult to play against, but I was pleased with the way the boys fought back.
“It’s nice to be in the draw, but we know there is a lot of hard work to be done. I thought the lads deserved the draw and I want to create positivity about the place. So far it’s happened.”
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