Burnley knocks out Liverpool

Liverpool eliminated from the FA Cup by lower league Burnley Tuesday, beaten 1-0 on an own-goal and ending with 10 men after Antonio Nunez was sent off.

Burnley the lead in the 51st minute of the third-round match at Turf Moor when Liverpool's Djimi Traore put the ball in his own net.

Ian Moore's glancing header sent Richard Chaplow clear down the left, and when his low cross skidded into the box, Traore turned the ball into his net at the far post. Nunez was sent off in the 87th minute for elbowing Tony Grant.

"It's a fantastic win for us, I'm delighted with the boys," Burnley manager Steve Cotterill said. "In the second half, probably, they were the better side, but in the first half we were the better side and very unlucky not to be a few goals up.

"In the end, perhaps, we deserved what we got on the night and we are delighted. It was our team ethic. We were a team tonight. We've got good individual players but they played as one of 11 tonight."

Liverpool Rafa Benitez said he would have been happy with a draw.

"They started at a high tempo and played well. After that we controlled the game but at the end there was a big mistake," Benitez said. "Sometimes they had counter attacks, but I think at least a draw would have been the best result."

Burnley, in 10th place in the Football League Championship, one level below the Premier League, will host Bournemouth in the fourth round.

Benitez most of his key players, but fielded goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, Sami Hyypia, Traore and Nunez. Midfielder John Welsh made his first start for Liverpool, in fifth place in the Premier League, and David Raven played his second senior match on defense.

"I don't think it was a mistake," Benitez said of his youthful team. "I am happy with the players, they tried. All of us are disappointed with the result, but that is football."

The match was originally scheduled for Jan. 7 but was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch.

In Tuesday's other FA Cup match, Leicester beat Blackpool 1-0 in a third-round replay and will play at Reading in the next round to be played Jan. 28-30. The two drew 2-2 on Jan. 8 at Leicester.

Liverpool the biggest club to be ousted at this stage of this year's edition of the world's oldest knockout competition.

Manchester United could join it however. The Red Devils play at non-league Exeter on Wednesday in a third-round replay after drawing 0-0 at Old Trafford on Jan. 8.

Other League clubs to be eliminated in the third round were Manchester City, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Norwich.

Other shocks in the 133-year history of the competition include Hereford 2, Newcastle 1 in 1972; Sutton 2, Coventry 1 in 1989; Wrexham 2, Arsenal 1 in 1992 and Shrewsbury 2, Everton 1 in 2003.

Blackburn agreed to pay 3 million pounds (US$5.58 million) Tuesday for Birmingham midfielder Robbie Savage.

Savage, who has been at Birmingham for 2 years, still needs to pass a medical test before he can sign with Blackburn.

"The next stage will be to confirm personal terms ... and for him to have a medical," Blackburn said on its Web site.

Savage in a transfer request two weeks ago, saying he wanted to move closer to his ill parents in Wales. At Blackburn, he would also be reunited with former Wales manager Mark Hughes, who now coaches the northern English club.

"It's been probably the worst two weeks of my footballing life. Hopefully tomorrow I'll pass the medical and it will come to a conclusion," Savage told Britain's Press Association.

"I'm not jumping the gun, if I pass that I'm looking forward to playing for Blackburn against Bolton on Monday. There are a lot of factors [for wanting to move] but the main one, I still say, is my family."

O'Leary gets reprimand

Aston Villa and manager David O'Leary were reprimanded by the Premier League on Tuesday after for making an illegal approach for Southampton's England striker, James Beattie.

Premier League rules state that clubs and managers can't approach players who are under contract without the other club's permission.

O'Leary charged after telling reporters in a news conference that a Southampton player wanted to join the club.

The Premier League said that comment implied the club had already approached the player without Southampton's permission.

Villa had a ?6 million (US$11.2 million) bid for Beattie turned down by Saints.

The England striker eventually moved on to Everton for a similar fee.

O'Leary, who denied the charge, said he only made the comment to reporters after Southampton had announced Beattie was available for sale.

"We are disappointed," Villa spokesman Phil Mepham said after the six-hour hearing at Premier League headquarters in central London.

"We had a fair hearing but the commission said to us that there were mitigating and exceptional circumstances in the case and as a consequence they have given us the lowest possible punishment of a reprimand. We accept it and move on."