Dross

If there is any justice Blackburn Rovers v Manchester City will go down as the Mogadon Quarter Final – an F.A. Cup tie which was a yawn a minute and a free kick every other minute, as befits a confrontation between two of the most ‘foul happy’ sides in the Premiership. And any Arsenal fans who watched this on Sky will be wishing they had opted for a general anaesthetic.

It is easy to document the highlights, since there were so few of them. On 24 minutes, Bentley’s precision cross presented Derbyshire with an almost perfect chance, which he headed over the bar. Three minutes later, Mokoena seized upon chaos in the Manchester City defence (not a rare occurrence) to put Rovers ahead. Ten minutes after half-time Corradi should have equalised from Ireland’s cross, but turned the ball narrowly wide. And after Mokoena had been dismissed, Derbyshire booked Blackburn’s place in the semi-final goal with a goal in the dying minutes.

There is no point in attempting to describe what this game was like as a spectacle. It was about as far from a ‘spectacle’ as a game between two Premier League teams could be and anyone who loves football must have been left wondering about a system which allows one of them to progress to the semi-final of the most famous domestic cup competition in the world, then praying that this is as far as it goes.