English Cup: West Ham exited by a D2, Luton qualifies with difficulty

The “Hammers” of captain Kurt Zouma, sixth in the Premier League, suffered the law of “Robins” after only two minutes and forty-six seconds, time for Tommy Conway to score, as in the first match which ended at 1-1 . The goal of the young Scottish center forward, on the lookout for a poorly adjusted back pass by Konstantínos Mavropanos, brought joy to the Bristol club, fourteenth in the Championship.

The club in the red and white jersey was then greatly helped by the exclusion of Saïd Benrahma (51st), guilty of a kick on an opponent who had tackled him hard, then by its goalkeeper Max O'Leary, author of 'a beautiful tap on a cover from Tomas Soucek (67th). Bristol City will host Nottingham Forest (D1) or Blackpool (D3) in the next round, at the end of January, while Luton will go to another Premier League resident, Everton or Crystal Palace, whose “replay” is scheduled for Wednesday evening.

The Luton “Hatters” suffered on Tuesday to get rid of Bolton Wanderers, ten days after being held 0-0 on their field. At home, the current fourth in League One (D3) even opened the scoring very early, but his advantage only lasted four minutes. Tahith Chong quickly equalized (15th) and Chiedozie Ogbene (58th) enforced the hierarchy. Newport County, a League Two club (D4), similarly got the better of Eastleigh, a National League club (D5), by 3 goals to 1. The Welsh will face the stars of Manchester United, finalists of the last edition, in the fourth round.

In the next round, the “Wolves” will only have around fifteen kilometers to travel to reach The Hawthorns, the stadium of historic rival West Bromwich Albion (D2), for a “Black Country derby” which promises to be lively.