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Five huge FA Cup upsets in the last decade: The teams Cheltenham Town will be looking to emulate as they clash with Premier League Manchester City

The FA Cup fourth round is right around the corner and the featured tie see’s Manchester City make the trip to The Johnny-Rocks Stadium to face Cheltenham Town.

To commemorate this occasion, here are some of the best results from lower-league teams who’ve defied all the odds and beaten Premier League opposition.

Crawley 3-0 Leeds – 10, January 2021

There’s no better place to start than this years FA Cup where in the previous round Crawley Town handily defeated Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds.

Second half goals from Nick Tsaroulla, Ashley Nadesdan & Jordan Tunnicliffe gave the League Two side a memorable victory and allowed them to set up a fourth-round tie with Championship Bournemouth.

Ex-Cheltenham Town loanee Tom Nicholls was a huge part of Crawley’s victory and the striker was also able to register an assist for his side’s second goal.

Burnley 0-1 Lincoln – 18, February 2017

In 2017 Lincoln City became the first non-league team to reach the FA Cup quarter finals beating Premier League Burnley at Turf Moor.

Sean Raggett’s last-gasp close range header was enough to set up a mouth-watering quarter final clash with Arsenal at the Emirates.

The Imps saw off Brighton & Hove Albion in the previous round, beating the Championship side at the time, 3-1 at Sincil Bank.

Current Cheltenham Town manager Michael Duff spent 12 years at the Clarets and played his final match for the club just five years ago.

Stevenage 3-1 Newcastle – 8, January 2011

Nearly ten years ago to the day, Stevenage put in a superb performance to beat Newcastle United 3-1 to get into the FA Cup fourth round.

Stacy Longs deflected effort and Michael Bostwick’s long-range thunderbolt put Stevenage two-nil up. Joey Barton gave Newcastle some hope of a revival late on but that was soon diminished by Peter Winn.

In the following round, Stevenage were back at home but they couldn’t replicate their performance against the Magpies, losing 2-1 to Reading

The League Two team started with Scott Laird at the back and the defender then went on to spend two season’s at Cheltenham’s local Gloucestershire rivals, Forest Green Rovers.

Chelsea 2-4 Bradford – 24, January 2015

Undoubtedly one of the most infamous FA Cup upsets and comebacks in history as Bradford City came from two-nil down to beat then Premier League Leaders Chelsea 4-2 at Stamford Bridge.

Gary Cahill and Ramires put Chelsea ahead in the first half but Jon Stead was able to pull one back for the Bantams before half-time.

Then, in the space of 20 second-half minutes, Bradford scored three goals, thanks to Filipe Morais, Andy Halliday & Mark Yeates.

Highlights from Bradford’s victory over Chelsea

On the bench that day for the Blues was current Manchester City player Nathan Ake, however the Dutchman is on the side-lines so will be unavailable for City’s clash with the Robins.

Manchester City 1-2 Wigan – 9, March 2014

Cheltenham could certainly take a page out of the book of Wigan Athletic as the Greater Manchester club have upset City on three separate occasions in the last ten years in various cup competitions.

This time round, Wigan travelled to the Etihad and went ahead courtesy of Jordi Gomez and then James Perch was able to double Wigan’s lead.

City hit back through Samir Nasri but could not turn intense late pressure into another goal, meaning that City had been knocked out of the FA Cup by Wigan two years in a row, after beating them in the final at Wembley the previous year.

Just four years later Wigan triumphed over City again, this time in the Carabao Cup.

As for this weekend, Pep Guardiola’s men face a trip to The Johnny-Rocks Stadium ahead of their fourth round FA Cup tie, and Cheltenham will be aiming to replicate some of these recent FA Cup upsets.

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