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AFP
AFP
Sport
John WEAVER

Premier League Forest, Bournemouth dumped out of FA Cup

Blackpool's Ian Poveda celebrates after scoring his team's second goal against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup. ©AFP

London (AFP) - Premier League strugglers Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth were dumped out of the FA Cup by lower-league opposition on Saturday as Harry Kane fired Tottenham past third-tier Portsmouth.

Elsewhere on a hectic day of third-round action, 2021 winners Leicester emerged unscathed from a tricky tie against lowly Gillingham and there were wins for Southampton, Fulham and Brighton.

Forest boss Steve Cooper named an entirely different starting team for the match at Blackpool after his side's midweek win against Southampton, which lifted them out of the Premier League relegation zone.

The plan backfired badly as the Championship team won 4-1 at Bloomfield Road, with goals from Marvin Ekpiteta, Ian Poveda, CJ Hamilton and Jerry Yates.

"This is a fantastic competition that I have been quite fortunate to experience fantastic days in and this was one of them," Blackpool manager Michael Appleton told the BBC.

"The fans have been great but we haven't given them enough at home but it isn't through the want of trying," he added.

Two goals from Morocco winger Anass Zaroury gave Championship leaders Burnley a 3-1 lead at Bournemouth but Dominic Solanke scored just after half-time to narrow the deficit.

However, Manuel Benson scored his second of the game to restore Burnley's two-goal cushion and they advanced to the next round with a 4-2 win.

"They're happy, the players have the right to celebrate," said Burnley boss Vincent Kompany."But it's the same for us to do every weekend. 

"The process after the game is to debrief and get back into the work routine.We'll be doing that again.

"I think you treat the FA Cup the same as the league.There wasn't too much consideration on workload because the games were sufficiently apart.We felt we wanted to do well in the competition."

Kane strikes

Antonio Conte rang the changes for Spurs in their match against League One Portsmouth but retained a heavyweight forward line including Kane and Son Heung-min.

The in-form Kane scored the only goal of the game in the 50th minute, receiving the ball on the edge of the box and bending a fine curling effort past the despairing dive of Josh Griffiths.

Kane, with four goals in four matches since missing the penalty against France that led to England's elimination at the World Cup, now has 265 goals for Spurs -- just one behind the club's all-time record scorer, Jimmy Greaves.

The 29-year-old said he was trying not to focus on overtaking Greaves.

"I try to not think about it," he said."Sometimes you can think too much.Obviously I feel in good form and I feel fit.My mindset is to help the team and hopefully the goals will come."

Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers, who led his side to the trophy two years ago, made multiple changes after his team's third straight Premier League defeat this week.

But he retained veteran forward Jamie Vardy for the match against fourth-tier Gillingham, who are rock bottom of England's Football League.

Vardy was the provider as Kelechi Iheanacho scored the only goal of the game in the 56th minute -- only his second goal of the season.

Premier League basement club Southampton came from behind to beat last year's semi-finalists Crystal Palace 2-1, courtesy of an error by Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita that allowed Adam Armstrong to pinch the ball and stroke it into an empty net.

Preston came from behind to beat Huddersfield 3-1 while Reading beat Watford 2-0. 

Non-league Chesterfield suffered the agony of conceding a stoppage-time equaliser against Championship side West Brom as the match finished 3-3.

Liverpool take on Wolves in the standout match of the day later on Saturday, with Manchester City hosting Chelsea on Sunday.

Manchester United beat Everton 3-1 on Friday in another all-Premier League clash, heaping the pressure on beleaguered manager Frank Lampard.

Forest Green's tie against Birmingham was postponed on Saturday due to a waterlogged pitch.

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