FA Cup Second Round

The road to Wembley continued this afternoon with the second round proper of the FA Cup taking place, the last round before clubs from the Championship enter, although with 6 postponements and an abandoned match only 21 of the scheduled 28 ties actually went ahead today. 

The only place to start today is the Vestacare Stadium and our friends at Mancunian Unity. Yet more history for the little club that could, into the third round of the cup for the first time since they were founded, I couldn't be happier for their fans and everyone associated with the club.

Unity came up against tier 6 Handsworth this afternoon. After the visitors got the match underway, the 10th minute of the match so the first possible penalty shout of the day for Unity, Olivia Shaw being brought down in the box but nothing given. 

Still pushing for an opener, the Handsworth keeper couldn't keep hold of a Unity corner on 22 minutes, the ball fell to Celeste Gordon but she was unable to fin the back of the net. A 26th minute free kick from Hayley McVean that went narrowly over and a 33rd minute free kick from Millie Jardine that was well saved almost saw Unity take the lead then a second penalty shout of the half for the home side after 39 minutes, Sadie Mitchell being taken out after turning the Handsworth defender but, controversially, no penalty. In the first of 6 minutes of added time Unity did finally open the scoring only for the goal to be ruled out by the linesman's flag. 

5 minutes into stoppage time Unity finally broke the deadlock, a Mitchell cross from the right headed back across goal by Shaw to Jardine how headed in for the lead. First half action wasn't quite over yet though. In the 7th minute of stoppage time Liz Ince doubled Unity's lead. 

Just over 10 minutes into the second half, the visitors found themselves down to 10 players with Handsworth's #14 being shown a straight red for a bad tackle. A little over 10 minutes later, a second of the afternoon for Millie Jardine and Unity 3-0 up. 

Tieing things up, a superb McVean pass splitting the Handsworth defence found Ellis Siddle who made it 4-0 on 90 mins sending Unity into the draw for round 3. 

No match today for Nottingham Forest, their trip to Long Itchington being one of the matches to be postponed, likely due to Storm Bert. I'm guessing it was a result of the postponement but it was nice to see last season's top scorer Bridget Galloway in the crowd at Kingston Park this afternoon. A player I was sad to see leave in the summer. 

Similarly, Middlesbrough also saw their trip to Hull City postponed and Erin Nelson's Stoke City also had their match against Loughborough Lightning postponed. 

In what has to be one of the upsets of the second round, Chester-Le-Street Town held Durham Cestria to a 1-1 draw at Maiden Castle before going on to win 3-4 on penalties. Nicki Gears providing an assist for Daisy Clarke to score her 4th goal in 4 games. 

In other results, South Shields suffered a 0-11 loss to Liverpool Feds, Wolves came out on top of a Midlands derby beating Sporting Khalsa 8-1, one goal was enough to see Andy Cook's Norwich City progress past Leafield Athletic and after a 2-2 draw with Ipswich Town, Hashtag United lost 4-1 on penalties. 

The draw for the 3rd round takes place at 11:00 Monday 25th November live on the Adobe Women's FA Cup Instagram, ties to be played on Sunday 8th December. Could the magic of the FA Cup possibly bring Mancunian Unity to Kingston Park?