FA Cup round-up M-R

City see off Boro; Lilywhites hammer Us; Reds held by Royals

Last updated: 2nd January 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

FA Cup round-up M-R

Benjani: Sent City through

Click below for individual match reports and stats:
Middlesbrough 0 Manchester City 1
Millwall 1 Derby County 1
MK Dons 1 Burnley 2
Nottingham Forest 0 Birmingham 0
Plymouth 0 Newcastle 0
Portsmouth 1 Coventry 1
Preston 7 Colchester 0
Reading 1 Liverpool 1

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Manchester City safely negotiated their way through a blizzard in the North East, while Portsmouth survived a scare on the South Coast as the FA Cup third round took centre stage on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Liverpool put in another uninspiring display to pile further pressure on Rafa Benitez, Burnley claimed a rare success on the road, Preston made a winning start to life after Alan Irvine and Nottingham Forest prolonged their fine unbeaten run.

Difficult conditions at the Riverside Stadium did Middlesbrough and Manchester City no favours, as the snow fell heavily on Teesside, but a solitary strike from Benjani was enough to hand Roberto Mancini a narrow win in his first FA Cup contest.

Portsmouth fell behind at Fratton Park to Championship outfit Coventry, but hit back on the stroke of half-time through Kevin-Prince Boateng to force a replay.

Liverpool were also forced to come from behind to snatch a draw against struggling second tier opposition, with talismanic skipper Steven Gerrard bailing them out in a 1-1 draw at Reading.

Burnley had no such problems at MK Dons, with goals from Graham Alexander and Steven Fletcher seeing them safely past Paul Ince's League One side 2-1.

Preston may have parted with their manager prior to their date with in-form Colchester but they showed no ill-effects as they claimed a comprehensive 7-0 win on home soil, with Jon Parkin bagging a hat-trick.

Nottingham Forest and Birmingham entered their fixture at the City Ground boasting enviable recent records and it came as no surprise that defences came out on top in a goalless draw, although Robert Earnshaw did waste a golden opportunity for the hosts when he blazed a second-half penalty over the crossbar.

Derby have found the going tough in the second tier over recent weeks but displayed commendable battling qualities to snatch a 1-1 draw away at Millwall and keep their cup dreams alive.

Newcastle continue to lead the way in the Championship, while Plymouth struggle at the wrong end of the table, but they proceeded to cancel each other out at Home Park and must try again after playing out a 0-0 stalemate.