LONDON — Aston Villa forgot its Premier League woes and moved into the fourth round of the FA Cup with an unconvincing 2-0 win over fourth tier Wycombe Wanderers in their third round replay at Villa Park Tuesday.
A 75th minute header from Ciaran Clark and a last minute strike from Idrissa Gueye settled the tie as Villa, beaten finalist last season but currently bottom of the Premier League, won for only the fourth time this season to set up a home meeting with Manchester City.
West Bromwich Albion, the only other Premier League team in action, was also made to battle for victory over lower league opposition, seeing off Championship (second tier) struggler Bristol City 1-0 at Ashton Gate.
The home side, which sacked manager Steve Cotterill last week, kept the Baggies out until the 52nd minute when Venezuela international Salomon Rondon, West Brom’s record 12.0 million pounds ($17.00 million) signing, trapped the ball on his chest before sweeping it home.
West Brom will face third tier Peterborough United at home in the next round.
Like Villa, debt-ridden Bolton Wanderers is another club whose glory days seem long gone but it also enjoyed a much-needed win.
Four-time FA Cup winner Bolton, struggling at the bottom of the Championship and facing a fight for survival with debts of 172.9 million pounds, won its replay against minor league Eastleigh 3-2 at the Macron Stadium.
Eastleigh, which plays in the fifth tier National League, gave Bolton an early scare when it took the lead after 11 minutes through fullback Joe Partington. Bolton, which faces a winding-up order from the tax authorities at the High Court next month, came back by scoring twice in four minutes through Gary Madine and Dean Moxey just before halftime.
The visitors equalized through Kaid Mohamed before the break before Darren Pratley, who scored the late equalizer in the original tie, scored what proved to be the winner after 52 minutes. Bolton now face Leeds United at home in the next round.
There was also joy for Portsmouth, now playing in the fourth tier but FA Cup winner as recently as 2008, who saw off second tier Ipswich Town 2-1 at Fratton Park. It now faces south coast rival Bournemouth.
PSG on track
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a last-gasp penalty as defending champion Paris Saint-Germain rallied to beat Toulouse 2-1 and reach the last 16 of the French Cup Tuesday.
Ibrahimovic scored a late header when PSG won 1-0 at Toulouse in the league last weekend, and his winner this time came in the 89th minute after Toulouse defender Uros Spajic clumsily tripped left back Layvin Kurzawa just inside the penalty area.
In other matches, striker Khalid Boutaib scored a hat trick to take his tally to five goals in the past three matches as Corsican side Gazelec Ajaccio beat Guingamp 3-0 at home.
Bordeaux won 2-1 at Angers, second-division Sochaux won 2-1 at Bastia and there was another upset as Rennes lost 3-1 at home to second division Bourg-Peronnas.
