Third-tier Sheffield United scored in the last minute of extra-time to dump sorry Premier League strugglers Fulham out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 victory on Tuesday.
The fourth-round replay at a rain-soaked Craven Cottage in London was almost completely devoid of goalmouth incident and looked destined for penalties until Shaun Miller snatched a dramatic winner in the 120th minute.
Miller’s header, from Harry Maguire’s knock-down, gave United a second successive victory against top-flight opposition after a previous success against Aston Villa in the third round.
Photo: AFP
“It is unbelievable,” Miller told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I am delighted to get the goal for my little son, who was born a few weeks ago. I am made up for him.”
It was the latest indignity in a desperate recent run for Fulham, who have slipped to the foot of the Premier League table after a run of four consecutive league defeats.
“We know that we’ve only got ourselves to blame,” said manager Rene Meulensteen, who takes Fulham to his former club Manchester United in the league on Sunday. “At the end of the day, that’s what we need to do. We need to look each other in the eye and say: ‘Let’s pick ourselves up and dig ourselves out of it.’”
“If you talk about this game and you say: ‘Have we hit rock-bottom?’ We probably have. OK, fine, that’s it, and if we have hit rock-bottom, it can’t get any worse and it can only get better, so that’s what we need to work for,” he said.
Sheffield United are themselves second from bottom of League One after a sequence of one win in seven games, but Nigel Clough’s side can now look forward to a home tie against either Preston North End or Nottingham Forest in the fifth round.
“If you hang on in there at 0-0, you always have that opportunity,” said Blades manager Clough, who began his playing career at Forest under his late father, legendary manager Brian Clough. “It was remarkable from the players out there. I thought we did enough in the game to get one goal.”
“We had an off day on Saturday at Crewe [Alexandra losing 3-0], but we put it behind us and produced a performance like this tonight. It is special, but we have to improve in the league,” Clough said.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set