The greatest upset in FA Cup history: Football Weekly

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0:30the cup than that and who didn't well up by the sight of striker Ethan McLeod's parents who lost their son weeks ago in a car crash in the dressing room with the rest of the squad on the other end of the scale kudos to Man City for not giving up at five as is customary but getting to double figures you have to admire the optimism of Exeter's George Birch after banging one in to cut the deficit to nine and getting the ball to run back to the centre circle elsewhere the Darren Fletcher honeymoon is over as Brighton winner Old Trappard the Thomas Frank nightmare continues as Spurs lose a home to Villa, a cracker at St James's, Wrexhambeak Forest and Mansfield win at Bramall Lane.

1:00Plus the big takeaway, has Ashley Barnes been at Burnley all this time? We'll do all that plus your questions and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

1:10On the panel today, Barry Glendennig, welcome. Uh-oh Max. Hello John Bruin. Hello. And welcome Sam Dalling. Hello Max. Chris says, have Crystal Palace saved the FA Cup firstly giving clubs belief they can win it and then providing a true cup set? Macclesfield 2, Crystal Palace 1, John, you are Macclesfield. We have talked to you about it when they went out of business. What joy. Unbridled joy, really. Just, I suppose, bursting with civic pride. I wasn't there. I wish I could have been there, but I'm more than happy for everybody that was there. It was just an utterly golden moment. And as you said, I mean, I was thinking back this morning about when you called me from the show back when Mac was extinct.

1:54Macclesfield Town FC was out of business and the desolation I felt that day, you know, because I haven't lived in Macclesfield for 25 years or so, 26 years nearly. And the club always provided that taste of home. I would see them when they played down south and that connection was gone. I mean, I still go to Macclesfield an awful lot, but just to see them back and to see the work that Rob Smithers, that Yona and those around him have done, and just the happiness on faces. And I've been asked to do a couple of radio spots and writing. And the thing is, wonderful enough, a guy on Five Live said to me, well, you don't seem that happy about this.

2:37And the other guy that was on there was also of a similar amount. And basically, because we're from Mac, that's just not the way. You know, it's an unassuming place. It's just sort of, yeah, it's good. Yeah, great, great. Yeah, but it's brilliant. But it's not a place to completely lose it. In the production meeting debrief, they'll be like, never get that miserable Mac fan on again. We wanted someone bouncing off the walls. This is the happiest I've ever heard you, John. Well, yeah, this is it, you see. I mean, they obviously wasn't familiar with my work, but it was, Macclesfield is a club, and Sam has spent quite a bit of time now, has always struggled because it's in one of the greatest catchment areas for football in the world.

3:17I think we can say that. United and City are just up the road you've got Stoke City were a Premier League club that's only 15, 16 miles away and Everton and Liverpool are not far away either and Mack had a proud non-league history had to fight for its own identity and now enters history you know as this new club as this Phoenix club with this brilliant victory with you know you mentioned the goal scorer Dawson I mean he set it off from the very start didn't he bleeding like Terry Butcher from, from the, you know, and just, just, it's just a clash of heads of which he's soldered on as if unaffected and just, you know, I think Palace were surprised by how sunny it gets in Macclesfield.

4:03I think that was part of it. They were surprised by the 4G pitch and they just got, they were beaten by, it has to be said, the better team. And we could go over Palace, but you know that I'm a big Adam Wharton fan. Yeah. yeah but i'm not sure i'd have him in a in a six aside on a 4g it did the surface just didn't suit him did it matt were brilliant and the work they've done and the remembrance of ethan mcleod there wasn't a hair out of place with what they did credits of rob smethers credits to everybody at the club it's good to be mac and barry like it is it is like statistically the biggest ever fa cup upset and it's quite hard i think we've sort of talked about this before and other things to sort of realize you're witnessing history like to put this with ronnie radford and sutton united and all those but that is 117 league places between these sides you know palace the holders of the fa cup it's ridiculous yeah and by a strange crook the last time the holders were knocked out by a non-league side was 117 years ago and the holders in question were wolves and the side that knocked them out were Palace so it's just one of those little coincidences football throws up I have actually seen people on social media try to denigrate Macclesfield's achievement by pointing out that oh well Crystal Palace didn't feel the full strength side so it doesn't count as a proper joint and killing you'd have to have a heart made out of coal or flint to think that and to try and in any way disparage an absolutely monumental achievement i love the fa cup i love fa cup shocks i can remember all the biggies and this is right right up there and probably as you say statistically literally the biggest there has never been a bigger gap and palace were the holders i'm so pleased for john rooney as well because i was quite moved when i read last week that when ethan mcleod tragically lost his life a few weeks ago rooney made the decision to ring each member of his squad individually and tell them this terrible news that cannot have been an easy thing to do and it's something he didn't have to do a huge tip of the hat to him for that and being John Rooney must be difficult because you're Wayne Rooney's brother and all anyone ever wants to talk to you about is Wayne Rooney and you weren't as good as football as your brother and for him to have this moment where his moment in the sun that will forever be remembered I think is lovely as well.

6:56So hats off to Macclesfield. I thought it was just a great, great story. Yeah, and actually, it was really lovely seeing how emotional Wayne Rooney was, not to make it about him, and how proud of his brother he was. It's always, Sam, injury time and the final whistle and just the moment when the fans know. There was a couple when they were like, okay, this is it. I think Wartom banked over the bar and you're like, this is it. And then the ref played on And then it ended up with Dawson just anywhere. And then the full-time whistle goes. And just that is such an amazing moment. And all the stewards saying, oh, please stay off the pitch.

7:32No pitch invasions. And yet the owner is the first one on this. What are you going to do if your owner is on the pitch? There's just, as John said, I spent a lot of time around Macclesfield. I was up there on Thursday, actually, with them training. And for all those who denigrate the achievement, people forget Mac were missing. Poor Danny Elliott, their top scorer in the competition. He got a hat-trick earlier in the round. I felt for him. I think he knew he was never going to play, but had to do all the pre-match media stuff because they didn't want Palace to have too much of an insight into their team selection.

8:04I mean, that club, it's just the heartbeat of the community again. If you go down to the ground, they've done it up beautifully. There's a huge bar that's used for functions all the time. There's a gym there. There's people every day. John Rooney, I spoke to him on Thursday and he was just so proud about being able to stand on the touchline because he started his career at the old Macclesfield town. One of his first games, he came on in the 90th minute of the FA Cup third round game against Everton back in a long time ago. He finished his playing career. 2009, Sam. 2009, was it? And he got promoted.

8:35I was there, yes. Were you? He's got Francis Jeffers as well as his assistant who brings a lot of humour, likes to sit in the background, didn't really want to speak because he said, no, no, this is all about John who has got the most beautiful white smile, by the way. Those teeth, I've never seen a whiter set of Nash's than John Rooney's. But yeah, so he finished. And he wasn't, you know, Robbie Savage left last minute. John Rooney was in the gym on a Sunday before going back to preseason on Monday, preparing as a player. And by the Tuesday, he was taking training. So, I mean, it's just so full of stories.

9:09The Ethan McLeod tragedy. And the players, they were at an away game and McLeod drove home. And the team coach was in a traffic jam. and they actually drove past the accident unbeknownst to them at the time that Ethan was involved. So just the character they've shown. Paul Dawson's a brilliant footballer. I tell you what, he's had a hell of a week. He scored the winner against Radcliffe Borough on his birthday on Tuesday. Go and look at that goal. It is an absolutely brilliant strike. And that was after he and his teammates had spent time shoveling snow off the pitch to get this game on. They paid for their own covers.

9:43They needed to pitch to get covers. So they ended up training alongside students at Manchester. It's just one of those proper non-league stories. It's brilliant for them. Yeah, and John, also, we mentioned the Dawson goal. The Buckley Ricketts, it took like 25 minutes to dribble in. How brilliant. It's one of those where we all know it's going in, but we're all waiting, just waiting and waiting. Just an incredible piece of improvisation. He sort of almost redirected himself in the air, didn't he? And then it sort of bobbled in along the... You're picking up those little 4G pellets as it rolled in.

10:16And yeah, it's interesting. You mentioned that a friend of mine that was at the game, Paul sent me a video of those final minutes from in the crowd. And just listening to the anxiety of the people there is quite a moment. And there was a lot of self-policing going on of people. A couple of people sort of went a bit early and tried to get on the pitch. He's like, no, no, you get back off. And just I've been at those games at Mac in the old days where, you know, they've won FA trophies. and it's one of those places where they're always going to go on a pitch and, you know, they did. And it was great to see Rob Smithhurst leading the charge.

10:52I mean, on a 4G pitch, you're not going to spoil the pitch, are you? So why not get on there and celebrate and enjoy? Tell us a bit about Rob Smithhurst, John. Yeah, Rob's a local lad, actually. A friend of my sister knows the family quite well. He is a local, made his money in the motor trade, was a very successful business. And then decided on a whim to, when the club went down, the old club went down back in 2020, decided to buy the club off right move. Now, the way that Rob tells it is that he was in the middle of a four-day session. Sessions have been part of Rob's make-up until quite recently.

11:33I think he's foresworn that, actually, at the moment. So, or perhaps, perhaps, for ever, hopefully forever. Just decided to do it on a whim. He's good friends with Robbie Savage from, you know, the kids going to the same school and all that, down in the sort of Cheshire Village community. And the first thing they did actually, and this was the thing that Rob and those around him, and he would give credit to many of those around him, and they deserve it, the unnamed people, is that that 4G pitch restored the club to the community because people could play on it. People could visit it. The bar that you mentioned, I watched Euro 2020 in there.

12:07The old club had lost touch with the town. It's on the edge of town. It's on the southern tip of the town. You might not, you know, like Cambridge United's ground is a bit out of the town. You know, it's sort of, you'd miss it if you weren't going there, if you see what I mean. And what they've done is they've restored it to the town and people are proud of that club again and go to that club and use it. And it's part of how the town works. And it had lost that. And in creating and thinking through the business of it, he's put four million pounds of his own money in. he's created a success story I know recently he's moved there were other owners involved and he said that he'd taken it as far as he can but he was front and centre deservedly so on this the greatest of all moments and you know whatever happens now Macclesfield had this moment and you know I did want them to draw United in the next round but that obviously relied on Manchester United actually winning a game so that was not was not going to happen there's a line in a Mac lads album and excuse the language for one second in which Mutley Macladd the singer says wait till you get Mac town in fourth round play a fucking real team there's a bit of Mac accent for you it's lovely I mean for Palace for Palace Baz like credit to them for giving their gate receipts to Macclesfield you know we'll get on to City not giving X to theirs in a bit I suppose if you're a Palace fan you take this given what happened last year you know if you said look you'll win it you'll win it but then the next year you'll go out to this you'd be like you they they can't be disappointed with their two years of fa cupness no uh they'll both be remembered for very different reasons they were dismal they deserve to lose this wasn't a backs against the wall hang in there lads performance they they were well beaten i thought oliver gasner made all the right noises after the game.

14:01He said, look, we're disappointed. I'm embarrassed. He congratulated Macclesfield. One of those things. I mean, these upsets are always possible. I didn't see this one happening. I thought the gulf between the sides is too big. I think it's important to point out to any of our listeners outside the UK who might not be aware, Macclesfield are a part-time team. They train twice a week. All their players have proper jobs in inverted commas. So this is huge. Palace fans will be annoyed, but I'd imagine they'll get over it pretty quickly if they haven't got it over it already. But it is an embarrassing bluff to have in your copybook.

14:41Yeah. I mean, they can still win the Conference League, couldn't they, and go out to McTown in the same season. I was at West Ham yesterday, and a pal of mine who works for another publication had to put in the call to Crystal Palace because they had a photo of Oliver Glasner out in Soho on Saturday night. you know and he's like no way yeah yeah and there was a picture of him like having a drink and he didn't you know it was what how is he what's he supposed to do i i don't really know i mean it didn't look like he was having like you know the world's best time he was just there but you know i i don't is he supposed to just lock himself away for yes some some football fans seem to think that's exactly what you're supposed to do why do you if you're him you're Sorry, Soho's so busy.

15:31If I'd just been knocked out by MacTown, I would have just gone to the local, to be honest. But, you know, maybe he lives in Soho. I don't know. He's obviously being paid very well if he can afford to drink in Soho. There's a Sam Smith pub there, I think. You could just do just about all right, if you pick wise. I'd be feeling rough in the morning now. Of course. Sam, since you've spent time with them, just any other thoughts on MacTown before we move on? I mean, I'd just echo what John says. The youth system, there's about 400 kids play for their youth teams. they've got an international academy like Rob does so much he's just a really nice genuine man he's got time for everybody and and the club he's always and I think there's a few things in the pipeline as well but they're always trying to extend their reach to try and bring people into it just on Palace I feel really sorry for their fans like obviously they won the FA Cup absolutely wonderful but this should have been their like big celebration season they win the FA Cup they get into the Europa League and now all of a sudden they're in the Conference League um they're sort of treading water aren't they they're just waiting they're in this season of where they're waiting for their manager the best manager they've arguably ever had to leave and their best player Mark A is going to run down his contract so it's just it must be a really weird season for Palace fans like turning up as they week after week but they've played so many games it's like twice two three times a week and just nothing's really happening for them they I reckon a lot of them would have gone yeah we saw that coming uh on Saturday.

16:53Barry while this was on uh you opted to watch Everton Sunderland in full. A game we'll dedicate maybe five seconds to on today's pod. Some familiar faces in the penalties missed column. Yeah, this, it was an OK game, actually. Sunderland deserved to win. They were the only team trying to win the game. They went a goal up. Wonderful strike from Enzo Le Fay. Oh, so good. Volley from outside the box. Just curled volley. Beautiful. So that made up for his penalty miss during the week, the Penenka. Everton got a penalty. It shouldn't have been a penalty, but they got it and they scored it. Late doors.

17:30Game went to pens. Robin Roos saved all three of Everton's. I'd have saved all three of them and I would have saved all three of them. It's not an exaggeration. Anyone would have saved them. They were terrible. And needless to say, Beto and Thierno Barry were two of the guilty parties. Terrible penalties. And the only thing I suppose to say from this, good win for Sunderland and Everton fans were very upset with me at the start of the season when I suggested they'd be relegated they're having a much better season than I thought they would but Everton fans seem to be very unhappy with their team with their lack of squad depth and they were ravaged here by suspension injury and AFCON I think it was eight or nine first team regulars missing or unavailable for whatever reason and they seem to be getting very unhappy with david moyes so it'll be interesting to see how their season pans out all right that'll do for part one part two we'll begin at the etihad welcome to part two of the guardian football weekly uh so manchester city 10 exeter one i mean not a surprise here gentlemen but a team scoring 10 is always a headline and sam you were you were there sam and you spent the day with exeter what a good luck charm will they ask you back again it's a lovely piece you've written by the way sort of behind the scene thank you i was very lucky i was essentially on exeter's backroom staff for the day um if you don't ask you don't get and and they let me in and by the way cities xg i don't know if you've seen it 2.23 like for 10 goals that has there ever been a difference yet 10 shots on target 10 goals they did score some screamers and you know you felt for exeter because you know at 5-6-0, they're bringing on Docu, Bernardo Silva.

19:20So, like, they didn't expect that strength for side. But, yeah, they let me in. And Gary Caldwell's this ambitious young manager. He had a really good career, won the SPL a couple of times with Celtic, won the FA Cup himself with Wigan. So I was there. They went to Carrington on Friday with Manchester United. And Caldwell knows Fletcher very well from their Scotland days. So they trained there. And then they let me just completely in. And I tell you what, one of the staff, and what I always feel for everyone in that situation, because no one really wants a journalist right hanging around there but they were all so welcoming to me everyone took the time to have a chat say hello introduce themselves and one of these coaches a guy called Dan Green said to me like you wait until the gaffer speaks like you will really see something and yeah it was like Braveheart like just a couple of oh yeah you would properly um run through any a wall of any material for this man it was just a couple of minutes it was really concise short points and he was so eloquent like at half time the players were a bit shell-shocked and he laid into them and said like it was a lack of lack of commitment to the game plan they'd worked so hard they treated it like it was any other game it was funny watching them training on friday and he was shouting instructions and he's going oh and if their nine does this and i'm thinking you just it's erling harland and you're just calling him bear number nine i just thought was fantastic and he just knew the right things to say there was a guy called jack mcmillan who has played every minute for exeter pretty much this season he got injured in training midweek so wasn't out of it so just 10 seconds of his pre-game speech was about like if you're going to do it for anyone do it for jack so he just made everyone feel part of it and at the end um i just basically said look you guys are not going to be defined by this and if you learn from this it'll be a good experience and he talked about how simple he was like they weren't flashy man city they were just brilliant we just have to learn from it and it was like a lesson he immediately i think the players he does it quite a lot he asks questions he's interactive he wants them to come back at him yeah it was it was a fantastic day i mean to get to see to be walking around the tunnel and see all that going on and sadly i didn't quite get the invite to go in with Pat Guardiola for a glass of wine afterwards, which I guess is fair enough, you know, maybe next time.

21:34But to be around, they were watching the players when they got there and they were warming up, stretching in the dressing room. They were watching that Macclesfield game on the screen and the cheer when the second goal went in. It was like, A, they were just well behind Mac, but also there was this little bit of maybe we can, maybe we can do it. And at the end, the thing that Caldwell did draw out was George Birch, who's one of their academy lads who scored that left foot scream and he said look i have never never celebrated yeah what a goal what nine nil down like that and the whole staff did but he'd been on loan at western supermare until two days ago and he'd only just come they called him back in and he just it was it was all about courage and the way he played but yeah to get that insight i mean that those manchester city dressing rooms it's like a maze in there there's there's four or five different rooms and you've got they put more pizza in after the game i think they must have left 30 full pizzas in their Exeter they they were well looked after and I know some people give them a bit of criticism on social media when they've put on posts saying oh yeah really like we loved the experience but like all right they lost 10-1 but that can happen but they it's enjoyed the right word I think for for a lot of those players it's the biggest thing that they will ever get to see and you know they're all excited about swapping shirts and things like that but Colbert and his team like you've Exeter have the lowest budget in League One and he's got them pretty much to mid-table three years in a row and i think that's a big achievement just quickly sam on because palace gave their gate receipts to macclesfield it doesn't mean man city have to give their gate receipts to exeter but extra are fan owned and they did ask because it wasn't put on tv which was sort of quite surprising really um i guess tv companies would say well look the result was you know the result was the result so it proved correct but a lot of games you know cambridge birmingham was on tv i mean like i love cambridge but that's a weird choice isn't it um so should we criticize city for not you know giving exeter some money could i interject and say we should criticize exeter or whoever asked city that's who should be criticized yeah they made it very public okay carry on buzz um so my understanding it was it was the supporters trust who asked and they asked publicly and i think if they'd asked privately city might well have given them the money but because they asked publicly it's almost like they're trying to shame them into giving them the money so i think city were dead right to say no who knows city may in the course of time go actually here you go do it quietly they probably won't but they might but um no i think the supporters trust if that is who asked made this public request for the money were wrong to do that yeah i think there's that there's that so the supporters trust own exter city and the exter aren't in the sort of financial peril they were in 20 years ago when they got that draw up at Old Trafford and then the replay which effectively saved the club but the supporters trust has I think loaned the club about 600 grand since last summer so yeah doing it publicly you hear a lot about footballers who do these acts of charity but the sort of stipulation is like don't tell anybody like I don't want the publicity for it you don't want to set a precedent right because if you do it once and I know you have to do it every time or there's pressure on you like is it fair on the other league one clubs I don't know um but also and this is not knocking Crystal Palace at all it's brilliant what they did but what are the sums of money we're talking about here it's all very well it's probably much easier to give up half of 5 ,000 tickets at a maximum of 30 quid ahead when a lot of them are kids as opposed to 40 50 000 including a whole load of hospitality and things so very different sums I'm with Barry a little bit but yeah I think you can't set a precedent and I think if you're going to do it do it quietly don't try and push someone into a position because I think if someone tries to push me into something, I know what my natural instinct is and it's to nudge them back a little bit harder.

25:23Not physically, metaphorically. On a lighter note, when George Burr scored that wonderful goal for Exeter, on Match of the Day, Conor McNamara said that at least Exeter fans could talk about his goal all the way home on the bus. Now, we have to try and get through 30 games in an hour today. It's 241 miles from the Etihad to Exeter's ground, and it takes four hours and 16 minutes to get there. I think halfway through hour four, if the bloke next to me is still talking about George Birch's goal, I'd be inclined to ask him to stop. To Old Trafford there, Man United 1, Brighton 2, Ross is now in the midst of a season consisting of only 40 games the fewest they've played since 1914-15 should Manchester United take advantage of the additional time on the training ground an experiment with three at the back yes John uh another defeat uh the Darren Fletcher era is over uh the breaking news is that Michael Carrick is the favorite not Solskjaer to uh get the gig what did you make of this game FC Buzz Killington uh to the rescue again not a particular surprise the sight of Danny Welbeck against Manchester United is one of dread always always why oh why oh why oh why oh why did they ever sell him I still think that he's a Manchester lad he loved the club and all that and Brighton are just the type of team that makes mincemeat out of this Manchester United team at the moment which is obviously very confused And yeah, that statistic that this would be the fewest games played since the outbreak of World War I or whatever is incredibly stark.

27:10But can they find some way of making it fewer games? I mean, can they just sort of not play the other games and just stop? Should they just say, right, we're done here and that's it? I mean, you know, they can't get relegated, I don't think. So, you know, do they just say, that's it, we're packing up for the season? Just like Sunday League. Sunday League, you get an email on the Saturday night going, oh, they can't raise a team, so you get 3-0. They're disbanded. Yeah, they've disbanded. Yeah, I mean, it's just, I feel sorry for Darren Fletcher. You know, I briefly had this flash of, ah, a manager with a Scottish accent.

27:50That feels reassuring. But then I remembered that they also had another manager with a Scottish accent, and that wasn't so reassuring. Yeah, poor Fletch. Welcome the new caretaker. It feels like something I say every year because it is. I mean, Welbeck's second, Welbeck's goal was brilliant. He does really well for the first goal as well, but his finish is so, so good. Eight goals in 19 games against Manchester United. Szesko made it 2-1. And then, Barry, late on, Shea Lacey is sent off. I mean, his first yellow could have been a red. Then he, you know, throws the ball away. And he looked so sad.

28:24It was like looking at my three-year-old when you tell him no more Thomas the Tank Engine. Like this tiny guy crying. And on match of the day, they were like, oh, you know, I think you shouldn't send him off because he's young. It doesn't really work like that. But you did feel for the lad. I didn't. Okay. Where that heart of granite is back, I guess. I'm of an age where any misfortune that befalls Manchester United or anyone connected with them is always welcome. I suppose the ref could conceivably as some people have argued shown him some leniency because he's young but that's not how these things work and he seemed genuinely baffled when the second yellow came out he kept going what for, what for and he must have known what it was for he lost his head in a little way and threw the ball away in frustration and that is a booking some refs don't give it some do and uh i can't remember who was the ref was but uh simon hooper i think simon hooper that's it yeah yeah it was a bold northern ref of course it was yeah he had a worst weekend in his brother who played for matt is that right at left back it was a mixed weekend for the lacy brothers he's going to be some player i saw someone on oh he looks good yeah yeah he came on against burnley midweek and i hit the bar but i saw someone on social media he put this apology app on social media and someone picked up and was like it's great you have an apology but the fact he'd taken time to put free pictures of himself walking off the pitch underneath the apology it's just like like if you're really apologizing is that well you are you probably is genuinely apologizing but you can see his PR team have probably gone through and found the three best picks of him being sent off to add to his apology which is just modern football yeah I will do everything I can to make it right I mean come on he's all right it's just a red card yes John So he's 18 and he's got a PR team.

30:20Well, I don't know. I'm guessing. Okay. Game's gone. Game's gone. Well, we don't know yet. Possible, isn't it? Possible. Is that his mum? Anyway, maybe he doesn't. Grant says, when discussing Spurs Villa, can we spend a bit of time talking about the two great Villa goals and how well they dug in during the second half rather than another Spurs post-mortem? I would love to not do another Spurs post-mortem, John, but I'm worried that's the direction of travel with this game. It's a Spurs story, I'm afraid, isn't it? You know, I did think actually, and I heard a wild rumour last night, I'm not particularly wild if you think about it, and I did think we were going to have to talk about Thomas Frank being sacked instead of Macclesfield's triumph, which rather annoyed me, but it turns out that hasn't happened yet.

31:03There is some confusion. Wait till 10 o 'clock. Wait till 10 o 'clock, yeah, yeah. It's only eight minutes to nine. Okay, yeah, good point, Baz. There is confusion, I am told, at the club over what to do, which wouldn't be the first time that's been a state of affairs. It's a terrible mess. As I've spoken many times in the past, I was a huge admirer of Thomas Frank at Brentford. He hasn't found the key to whatever the riddle at Tottenham is. Neither has anybody else, really, for quite a long time now. The club's change of ownership or change of leadership hasn't really produced any change of, well, the club is even more directionless than it was before.

31:45That appears to be the big problem. Thomas Frank is the guy that bears the brunt of it. His team aren't playing well enough. We've spoken many times about how at that stadium is a seething well of discontent. And so it proved again. Well done, Aston Villa. Their season continues to be really good. We probably don't praise Aston Villa enough. I agree with the original email. Let's just say they're having a brilliant season. and they've got a brilliant manager. Enjoy it, Aston Villa fans. You deserve to. But Spurs, it's Spurs-West Ham at the weekend, isn't it? I'm going to be there. Oh, man, alive.

32:20I'm going to be there. You know, I mean, I don't... It's going to be a real cheery occasion, I think. I mean, the thing is, Sam, you have to give a manager time at some point. It's not enough time, but then what if you give the wrong manager loads of time? Do you know what I mean? like that's that's that's the difficult thing i think because frank is so nice and he's so affable and you think god i really want it to work for this guy but maybe that's just not how this thing works like johnny lou said on thursday like all the goals from last season aren't there like like none of the goals so that does make a difference yeah it does but i think i've said it on earlier pods that they see lost the fans very early within a month and once you've done that it does it's a big old mountain to climb and i yeah i can't really say anything to you i just i really like thomas frank but i it's sad actually to see him like this um he's lost a bit of his energy a little a little bit of his bounce you know he was always flashing smiles when he was at brentford and cracking jokes and it's just like this is a man who's been broken by a gig so maybe maybe the best thing for him is to take that out yeah not the first not the last yeah who will be the next three broken man united and spurs just unmanageable football teams and they all they got a bit chippy spur the end paulino was trying to just kick absolutely everything there was a bit of a you know a bit of a to-do at the end anyway uh tinsen james is newcastle three bournemouth three and newcastle threw on penalty the endless penalty shootout sam it was extraordinary was it just i mean i just thought you kept thinking this has got to be it now hasn't it is he blooming run-ups i don't i don't know if anyone's done the stats on the sort of how much the chances of you missing a penalty increases when you do these stuttered run-ups because i think bruno and voltamada did i don't know if they're ready i haven't seen the everton sundland penalty shoot out they were all short run-ups were they it's just like because you hear a lot of the football and anthony gordon's penalty was a good example a lot of them talk about visualization like good penalty takers they're constantly they're thinking about where they're going to put the ball they might be in the shower in the morning or brushing their teeth and they're thinking about where they're going to put that ball and you're just thinking well if you're doing a stuttered run up like that you're sort of concentrating on something different or you're waiting for the keeper to move so actually you're trying to control someone else rather than what the bits that you can actually control but it was a good moment for Aaron Ramsdale getting a couple of saves in because he had he had a bit of a run when Nick Pope was injured and probably isn't going to play in the league for Newcastle again I'm not sure they're that convinced about him brilliant kicker but he not as good a shot stopper as nick pope so a good moment for him and another ridiculously fun game atst james's park and you know eddie howe has done they've done exactly what they needed to do they've won for three league games in a row and now gone through in the cup last thing they wanted is howe said was extra time because they've got manchester city on tuesday in the carabao cup semi-final and they beat inside that they not should be beating but need to be beating if they want to achieve their ambitions.

35:26It gives them some momentum into what is like a massive couple of weeks. They've got Champions League games against PSV and PSG, two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final. They've got Liverpool in the league. I'm tired listening to Sam describing Newcastle's fixture list. I mean, how much football has been played already this year? You know, I was watching the game maybe Saturday and they just said, and on Tuesday we'll have Carabao. I'm like, what? There can't be more football. David Mitchell's here. No, it's just, this 2026 has been the most relentless year of football ever. It feels like it. It's just never going to stop.

36:03Afghan special tomorrow, by the way, which is happening at the same time as all of this. I mean, Voltemar does pass for the Barnes. The owner is beautiful. And there was a great shot of a child telling Tavenir to fuck off when he equalised in the 122nd minute. That was lovely. Anyway, that'll do for part two. We'll try and do the rest of the games in part three.

36:29welcome to part three of the guardian football weekly john a forest fan writes what's worse for a premier league team losing to a team in the national league north or losing to some hollywood pricks who are going to stick their win in a fucking documentary and send it to emotionally swelling music like some bugger being told they're going to judges houses on bloody pop idols taking defeat well there john i see um this was another good game barry and you know a penalty hero in Arthur Okwanko, the Wrexham keeper. Yeah, I didn't know anything about him. I sort of Googled him. He was a kid at Arsenal and is now at Wrexham.

37:03He was one of several Wrexham heroes, I suppose. I don't know really what to make of Wrexham. You know, we all know the story. They've done a huge amount for the town in Wrexham. They've created a lot of employment. They've generated a lot of interest in it. They've brought a lot of tourism to the town. lot of money to the town then there are bad bits as well accepting taxpayer money in the form of grants non-repayable grants that they don't need that seemed a bit off to me but i think it's it's a far more of a good news story than a bad news one i don't think this really classifies as an upset i kind of expected rexham to win this game it was notable that sean dyche how he's normally pretty mild you know he doesn't go overboard when his sides win and he doesn't go overboard when they lose but he was clearly very angry with Forrest's first half performance here he made the point there's a lot of players knocking on my door wondering why they're not in the first team well they were in it tonight and they found out why they're not in it we all saw why they're not in it and I know I went had a look like who did he hook at half time James McAtee he hasn't been get much of a look in at Forrest and he was terrible.

38:21Oleksandr Zinchenko and Delane Backward, they were the ones that went off at halftime. A really good win for Wrexham. Look forward to seeing it again in the documentary. Someone has said, yeah, it was a really good game. Really good game. I did the minute by minute on this game and the commentary seems to be obsessed with Ryan Reynolds' dress because he kept changing his shirt and putting a gilet on and put on Rob Mack's shirt at one point and then swapped to a gilet. And I was actually more interested in the fact that Sean Dyche, in weather that was absolutely horrendous, did his pre-match duties in shorts.

39:00And I thought, yeah, that is classic Dyche, isn't it? Yeah, but as Barry said, he was seeding after. By which point he was wearing tracksuit bottoms. But there you go. Sheffield and I had three, Mansfield four, Mansfield 12th in League One. Maybe the club in the EFL were the fewest mentions on Football Weekly. I can't even remember writing their name before, but what a brilliant result for them. There were 4-1 up, 5 ,000 travelling fans. Two goals for Louis Reid in the first half. One of them, an absolutely brilliant goal. Rhys Oates was great all day and an absolutely brilliant smash it anywhere just before full time from someone.

39:35I don't know if anyone has any further thoughts on Mansfield. This is their moment. Sam, yes, go for it. On Reid, I think he's actually Sheffield United's youngest ever player and it was Nigel Clough. who is the current Mansfield manager who gave him his debut about 10, 12 years ago. So a nice little return to them double. They just go a little bit under the radar because Clough doesn't seem to like. Clough doesn't really like to do any media, but they've done really well. They've got out of League Two and stabilised in League One. So I hope they get the sort of big draw that they'll be desperate for in the next round because they might get a mention on Guardian Football Weekly two months in a row if they get a big draw next up.