Shocks, goals and managers under pressure
The Game
The Times
3.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Upsets, late drama, near misses and lots of goals. The FA Cup third round had it all.
It may have lost some of its shine in recent years but at the weekend the FA Cup showed why it is still the greatest cup competition in the world.
Macclesfield pulled off what was on paper the biggest shock in the history of the competition…but it didn’t look like that on the pitch.
There was misery at Spurs and Manchester United what next for the managers at both clubs? Michael Carrick looks set to be appointed interim manager of Manchester United but what is expected from him? And for Thomas Frank is it ‘the end of days’ ?
Tom Clarke, Tom Allnutt, Hamzah Khalique-Loonat and Gregor Robertson review a frantic weekend of football.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the game, football podcast from The Times and Sunday Times. |
| 0:08.7 | The holders knocked out by a team 117 places below them in the pyramid. |
| 0:13.1 | Stacks of goals, extra time and penalties, and even West Ham won, who says the FA Cup is boring. |
| 0:19.3 | Plenty of teams enjoyed their weekends, but it's more misery for Thomas Frank as Totten are knocked out by Aston Villa. At Old Trafford, Manchester United were beaten by Brighton, with Michael Carrick the favourite to lead them until the end of the season. How do they salvage their shortest campaign for 111 years? I'm Tom Clark, and joining me today. We have the football reporter who covers clubs in |
| 0:39.3 | the south of England with a focus on Totman. It's Tom O'Nott, the reporter and tactical analyst Hamza Khalik |
| 0:44.2 | Lunat and the former football return journalist Gregor Robertson is here as usual. Now team, as we record |
| 0:49.5 | this on Monday morning, the big news courtesy of Matt Lawton late on Sunday night is that Michael Carrick is the favourite to be Manchester United Manager until the end of the season. Maybe by the time |
| 0:58.4 | you're listening to this, he's already been appointed. Maybe the story's changed completely, |
| 1:01.9 | but we're not going to start with that, because when on earth do you get the chance to start |
| 1:07.5 | a podcast with some glory from a team in the National League North. |
| 1:12.3 | Gregor, Macclesfield beating Crystal Palace on Saturday 2-1. |
| 1:16.2 | I don't think anyone saw this coming. |
| 1:17.8 | A fully deserved victory. |
| 1:19.1 | They were excellent, weren't they? |
| 1:20.7 | Yeah, great scenes as well. |
| 1:23.2 | Pitch invasion, players held up on shoulders, all that kind of stuff. |
| 1:26.7 | Player with a bandage on his head |
| 1:27.8 | scoring the goal |
| 1:29.3 | and celebrating on the fan's shoulders |
| 1:32.9 | brilliant |
| 1:33.2 | yeah like Crystal Palace were really poor |
| 1:37.5 | but Macclesfield made it really difficult |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.