What an amazing day of FA Cup action! Who would have thought that last years finalists would both be knocked out of the greatest cup competition in the world on the same day by supposedly lesser teams?

Well, they were. Both the current cup holders and the Premiership champions were beaten 1 - 0 in the Quarter Finals and for the naturals it totally blows open this years competition with the reality, that for once, a lower league team could win the famous old trophy.

So the holders Chelsea lost to Liverpool’s conquerers, Barnsley, a second division side. So that famous win at Anfield maybe wasn’t a flash in the pan! The win mean the Yorskshire side are now in the Semi Finals for the first time in nearly 100 years after striker Kayode Odejay headed the winner in the 66th minute.

The celebrations begin at Oakwell as Barnsley knock out the FA Cup holders Chelsea

Earlier in the day at Old Trafford, with no disrepect to Portsmouth, they pulled off a huge shock by beating Manchester Utd also by the same 1 - 0 scoreline. The winner was a penalty in the 81st minute scored by Sulley Muntari. It was Portmouth’s first victory at Old Trafford in 51 years. See what I mean about a “huge shock”?

So after years of domination by England’s so called “big four” (going back to 1996) this year’s FA Cup has produced some stunning upsets and the true possibility that a club from outside of the Premier League could win the trophy.

The other Quarter Finals feature Premier League strugglers Middlesbrough at home to Championship side Cardiff City whilst League One (or the old Third Division) team Bristol Rovers are at home to Championship high flyers West Bromwich Albion. All the remaining teams must now surely be dreaming of Wembley and the fact it could be their year.

The hero and scorer of Barnsley’s winner at their Oakwell ground was journeyman Odejay, who was formerly at minor league team Forest Green. he had already caused the Chelsea captain John Terry a whole host of problems before he outleapt Carlo Cudicini in the Chelsea goal the head his winner.

Chelsea launched a wave of desperate attacks in the final minutes with Terry himself shooting wildly over and several efforts being blocked. But Barnsly bravely hung on to, not surprisngly, spark wild celebrations at the final whistle.

The Barnsely manager, Simon Davey said after the game, “I’m ecstatic, I can’t believe it.” I bet he wasn’t the only one!

“Everybody thought we couldn’t do it again after beating Liverpool [at Anfield]. The players were fantastic. I’ve not been to Wembley before and nor have many of the players.” (The semi-finals are going to be held at Wembley this year for the first time since 1992. Another FA money grabbing scheme if ever there was one!)

So, only two weeks after losing the League Cup final to Tottenham at Wembley, the Chelsea boos Avram Grant is now surely going to come under increasing pressure. Good job they made it easily through to the last 8 of the Champions League in mid-week. Otherwise I wouldn’t have put much money on him surviving too much longer. Football is certianly a cut-throat business these days. A few shorts weeks ago, everything was looking fine for Grant and Chelsea and a lot of people were saying “Jose who?”

Grant said, “Credit to Barnsley, they showed a lot of spirit. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to play well on this pitch and we didn’t, especially in the first half.” Oh dear, excuses excuses! Didn’t Barnsley have to put up with and play on the same pitch?

Meanwhile, back at Old Trafford, Portsmouth produced more of a classic “smash and grab” to reach the semi-finals. Pomepy were under seige for long spells but a penalty with only 12 minutes remaining, after the Utd keeper Kuszozak had been sent off for fouling former Liverpool striker Milan Baros, sealed the famous victory.

A jubilant manager Harry Redknapp said, “It was the worst draw we could have had but it was a great performance and a great result. We rode our luck but United are a fantastic team and we deserved our luck. It was the second time Redknapp had knocked man Utd out of the Cup, after his Bournemouth side did it way back in 1984.

It must be said that Portsmouth did have a huge let-off though in the first half after Distin seemed to barged into Ronaldo as he burst into the box.

At the heart of the Portsmouth defence, Sol Campbell’s resistance was excellent whilst keeper David James produced one top class saveto turn a great shot by Evra onto the post.

Also substitute Michael Carrick looked an absolute certainty to score from just a few yeards out only for Distin to make a brilliant last ditch tackle.

Distin’s last ditch tackle to deny Carrick what looked like a certain goal for Man Utd

Portsmouth were, to be fair, on the rack at this point, but just when it seemed it was only a matter of time before Utd broke the deadlock, James made a quick clearance and picked out Croatian Kranjcar and he then squared the ball to Baros. The Czech went round the goalie [a half time sub for van der Sar] before he was fouled. The red card followed, and with already having used their sub goalie, it was left to Ferdinand to go in goal. But he was powerless to stop the penalty as Muntari cooly placed it into the bottom corner.

Portsmouth win a penalty when Tomasz Kuszczak, on for Edwin Van der Sar, brings down Milan Baros

it was hardly a surprise that Alex Ferguson, the Utd manager, was scathing of the referee Martin Atkinson after the game. “The game was decided by a decision not to give us a penalty. They [Pompey] had great confidence to hang on knowing the referee was on their side.” Oh dear, not too bitter then.

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