FA Cup 3rd Round: The Democratic English Leagues

Take one look at the results of the Third Round of the FA Cup and you will see quite how democratic the English football leagues are. In many countries, teams from the second division haven't a chance, the term "Premier League" striking the fear of God into them. In England, let us see...

The English league system is composed of four professional leagues: Premier, Championship, League 1, League 2 and then the semi-professional non-league. We will categorise the games per category.

Premier - Championship

Ten games. 6 Premiership clubs won, 3 draws and one Championship club beat the Premiership team.

Arsenal (Pr) 1 (pen) Leeds United (Ch) 1 (pen) Replay at Leeds United

Blackburn (Pr) 1 - Queen's Park Rangers (Ch) 0

Doncaster (Ch) 2 Wolves (Pr) 2

Hull City (Ch) 2 - Wigan (Pr) 3

Millwall (Ch) 1 - 4 Birmingham City (Pr)

Reading (Ch) 1 - 0 West Bromwich Albion (Pr)

Scunthorpe (Ch) 1 - 5 Everton FC (Pr)

Sheffield United (Ch) 1 - 3 Aston Villa (Pr)

Stoke City (Pr) 1 - 1 Cardiff City (Ch)

West Ham United (Pr) 2 - Barnsley (Ch) 1

Premier - League 1

Fulham (Pr) 6 Peterborough (L1) 2

Southampton (L1) 2 - 0 Blackpool FC (Pr)

Premier - League 2

Stevenage (L2) 3 - 1 Newcastle United (Pr)

Premier - Non-League

Bolton (Pr) 2 - York City (NL) 0 (York City is 14th in the Non-League Premier Table)

Championship - Championship

Coventry City 2 Crystal Palace 1

Preston NE 1 Nottingham Forest 2

Championship- League 1 

6 games. 4 victories to League 1 teams, 2 to Championship sides.

Brighton (L1) 3 - Portsmouth (Ch) (Ch, last year's finalists) 1

Bristol City (Ch) 0 - Sheffield Wednesday (L1) 3 (L1)

Norwich City (Ch) 0 - 1 Leyton Orient (L1)

Sunderland (Ch) 1  - 2 Notts County 2 (L1)

Swansea (Ch) 4 - 0 Colchester (L1)

Watford (Ch) 4 - 1 Hartlepool (L1)

Championship - League 2

Burnley (Ch) 4 - Port Vale (L2) 2

Burton Albion (L2) 2 - Middlesbrough (Ch) 1

League 1 - League 2

Torquay (L2) 1 - 0 Carlisle (L1)

League 1 - Non-League

Huddersfield (L1) 2 Dover (Seventh position in Conference League South = Division 6) 0

League 2 - League 2

Lincoln City 3 - 4 Hereford

Photo: Robert Snodgrass (Leeds United)

Aleksei Federov

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