FA Cup Wrap: Walters lifts Stoke, Fulham scrape in

Jon Walters bounced back from a horror week to help lift Stoke City past Crystal Palace 4-1 in their third-round FA Cup replay on Tuesday.

The striker scored two own goals and missed a penalty in his side’s 4-0 thrashing at the hands of the Chelsea in the Premier League last weekend, but made amends by striking twice at the right end at the Britannia in a game that needed extra time to decide a winner.

Crystal Palace were handed a golden opportunity to go ahead just after the half hour mark when Wilfried Zaha was brought down in the box by Ryan Shawcross. But Jermaine Easter’s penalty was saved by Thomas Sorensen to ensure the sides went in level at the break.

Much to the relief of the home fans Kenwyne Jones put Stoke in front on 69 minutes and it appeared to be enough to send them through to the fourth round until Palace were awarded another penalty with substitute Glenn Murray making no mistake.

Extra-time belonged to Stoke, however, with Walters scoring either side of a Cameron Jerome goal to seal what in the end was a comfortable victory.

Tony Pulis’ side will now face Manchester City in the fourth round proper.

Meanwhile, Fulham left it extremely late as they just scraped past Blackpool 2-1 at Bloomfield Road.

On-loan Aston Villa striker Nathan Delfouneso gave Blackpool the lead in the 82nd minute and the home side looked to be on the verge of progression into the fourth round before Kieran Richardson popped up in the 94th to send the game into an unlikely extra time period.

Neither side could break the deadlock as the game edged towards penalties only for defender Brede Hangeland to loop a header from a Damien Duff cross into the back of the net in the last minute of the game as Fulham escaped with a scrappy win.

Sunderland, meanwhile, crashed out of the tournament after losing 2-0 to Championship side Bolton.

After an uneventful first half at a freezing Stadium of Light the game sparked into life in the 63rd minute when Jack Colback brought down Darren Pratley in the box, with Marvin Sordell stroking home to resulting penalty.

Sordell then scored a second ten minutes later to seal the win, managing to poke the ball home after a goal-mouth scramble to book Bolton a fourth round tie with Everton.

Queens Park Rangers belied their lowly standing on the Premier League table as they defeated West Bromich Albion 1-0 at The Hawthorns.

A Jay Bothroyd header after 75 minutes was enough to get the away side over the line as their season continues to turn around under Harry Redknapp.

Leeds United will face Tottenham Hotspur in the fourth round after they came from behind to beat Birmingham City 2-1 at St Andrew’s.

Wade Elliot put the home side ahead in the 36th minute but Leeds stormed back to steal the win with Ross McCormack and El Hadji Diouf both scoring in the final 20 minutes.

In the night’s other matches, Hull City needed extra time to scrape past Leyton Orient 2-1, MK Dons beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-0, Wigan got the better of Bournemouth 1-0 and Brentford overcame Southend United 2-1.