MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Third-tier Mansfield pulled off the latest upset in this year's FA Cup by knocking out Premier League side Burnley on Saturday.
Louis Reed's goal in the 80th minute at Turf Moor completed a comeback 2-1 win for the League One team in the fourth round after going behind in the first half.
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Manchester City's Marc Guehi, left, celebrates scoring during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Manchester City and Salford City in Manchester, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Mansfield Town's Stephen McLaughlin celebrates scoring during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burnley and Mansfield Town in Burnley, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Richard Sellers/PA via AP)
Mansfield Town's Louis Reed, left, celebrates scoring during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burnley and Mansfield Town in Burnley, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Richard Sellers/PA via AP)
Burton Albion's Udoka Godwin-Malife, left, and West Ham United's Oliver Scarles in action during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burton Albion and West Ham United in Burton upon Trent, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
Referee Lewis Smith sends off West Ham United's Freddie Potts, center, during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burton Albion and West Ham United in Burton upon Trent, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
Burton Albion's Kain Adom, left, and West Ham United's Soungoutou Magassa in action during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burton Albion and West Ham United in Burton upon Trent, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
As giant-killings go, it might not be as spectacular as non-league Macclesfield's victory against titleholder Crystal Palace last month - but it is another major shock result in soccer's oldest knockout competition.
There was no fairytale for fourth-tier Salford at Manchester City, however, even if it did keep the score down to 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium.
Burton Albion gave West Ham a scare before losing 1-0 in extra time.
An increasingly painful season got worse for Burnley after the humiliation of being dumped out of the cup against a team from two division lower.
Mansfield is midtable in League One and even against a Burnley team that had won just two of its previous 18 games, went into the match as the underdog.
And when Josh Laurent scored in the 21st, it looked like the home team would book its place in the next round.
That was until a second-half fightback from Mansfield sparked by Rhys Oates' equalizer eight minutes after the break. Reed sent the traveling fans wild with his winner late on.
It's been a very good week for Pep Guardiola's team, which has closed the gap on Premier League leader Arsenal to four points.
And its four-pronged trophy pursuit is still in good shape after victory against Salford - the team co-owned by Manchester United greats David Beckham and Gary Neville.
City beat Exeter 10-1 in the last round and Salford might have feared a similar outcome when Alfie Dorrington scored an own goal in the sixth. But City had to wait until the 81st to score again through Marc Guehi.
Burton, fighting against relegation in the third tier of English soccer, went toe-to-toe with top flight West Ham - forcing the game into extra time at the Pirelli Stadium.
It took a 95th-minute goal from substitute Crysencio Summerville to separate the teams.
A red card for West Ham's Freddie Potts six minutes later meant there were still some nerves before the final whistle was blown.
There was relief all round for West Ham, which is fighting its own relegation battle this season.
Norwich beat West Brom 3-1 and Southampton needed extra time to beat Leicester 2-1.
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Manchester City's Marc Guehi, left, celebrates scoring during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Manchester City and Salford City in Manchester, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Nick Potts/PA via AP)
Mansfield Town's Stephen McLaughlin celebrates scoring during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burnley and Mansfield Town in Burnley, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Richard Sellers/PA via AP)
Mansfield Town's Louis Reed, left, celebrates scoring during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burnley and Mansfield Town in Burnley, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Richard Sellers/PA via AP)
Burton Albion's Udoka Godwin-Malife, left, and West Ham United's Oliver Scarles in action during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burton Albion and West Ham United in Burton upon Trent, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
Referee Lewis Smith sends off West Ham United's Freddie Potts, center, during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burton Albion and West Ham United in Burton upon Trent, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
Burton Albion's Kain Adom, left, and West Ham United's Soungoutou Magassa in action during the English FA Cup fourth round soccer match between Burton Albion and West Ham United in Burton upon Trent, England, Saturday Feb. 14, 2026. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The Canadian curler at the center of a spiraling controversy at the Winter Olympics insisted Saturday he was not a cheat and postulated that his team might be the target of a “premeditated” attack by Sweden, one of its biggest rivals for the gold medal.
Marc Kennedy acknowledged he “probably could have handled it better” after launching an expletive-laden outburst toward Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson, who accused him of breaking rules by “double-touching” — essentially, touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice — during Canada’s 8-6 win in round-robin play late Friday.
However, the 44-year-old Kennedy said he did not — and has never — deliberately taken to the ice “with the intention of getting an advantage through cheating.”
Footage circulating widely online appeared to show Kennedy breaching curling rules by touching the granite stone with his outstretched finger after he had already released it. Asked about the footage, Kennedy said: “Yes, I’m not even going there. I’ve never even known that to be a concern before. It’s never ever come up in conversation.”
“And if somebody said to you, ‘Hey, do you double-touch all the time?’ I honestly, in that split second of a moment, I couldn’t even tell you if I do or not," he said.
He added that he has his own theory, suggesting the whole thing might have been “premeditated planning to try to catch us.”
“They’ve come up with a plan to catch teams in the act,” Kennedy said.
The saga has rocked the usually sedate world of curling and it involves two teams who play each other regularly outside the Olympics and are among the best players in the game.
Kennedy receiving a verbal warning from governing body World Curling a day after the feisty back-and-forth with the Swedish team when fingers were pointed and the Canadian player repeatedly swore. He has not been formally charged with cheating by World Curling, which does not use video to review game play.
The organization opted to deploy two officials to monitor how players released their stones during Saturday's afternoon session in the men's competition. In that session, Canada lost 9-5 to Switzerland and Sweden beat China 6-4.
Afterward, Eriksson said he “slept good, I'm not sure about him” — in reference to Kennedy — and said he chose that moment to call out Kennedy's alleged rule-breaking because he'd seen it happen in the past. Eriksson said he has told officials in two previous events.
“We want to play a fair-and-square game, like you follow the rules," Eriksson said. “And if we see something that’s not following the rules, we tell the opponents or the official. This time we did both.”
The allegations kept coming.
During its game against Canada, the Swiss men's team alerted umpires mid-match to their suspicion that a member of the Canadian team was again double-tapping, Swiss coach Glenn Howard said.
Howard is Canadian, and a well-known and highly-acclaimed curler himself.
“My whole career, you’d be like, ‘Ah, that’s okay'" if there was a minor infraction, said Howell, who said he didn’t know what to make of this latest flare-up.
In the early ends of Friday's match, Sweden skip Niklas Edin notified officials of their complaints about Kennedy. An official then remained at the hog line — the thick green line before which curlers must release the stone — for three ends to monitor Canada’s curlers and no violations were recorded, World Curling said Saturday.
The online footage that appears to show Kennedy double-tapping the stone prompted some curling fans to question how the video was taken and point out that cameras are not usually stationed at the hog line.
A staffer for Swedish public broadcaster SVT said the channel had gotten the footage because they had moved their camera to the hog line after Sweden raised concerns about the double tapping early in the match. The camera operator stayed there until he was able to capture Kennedy’s pitch in the eighth end. Eriksson said Swedish TV had showed him that footage.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Canada's Ben Hebert, Brett Gallant, Brad Jacobs, and Marc Kennedy strategize during the men's curling round robin session against Switzerland at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Canada's Marc Kennedy in action during the men's curling round robin session against the United States, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Canada's Marc Kennedy in action during the men's curling round robin session against Sweden, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Canada's Marc Kennedy, Brad Jacobs, and Ben Hebert react after the men's curling round robin session against Sweden, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Canada's Brad Jacobs, Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant, and Ben Hebert in action during the men's curling round robin session against Sweden, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Sweden's Rasmus Wranaa and Christoffer Sundgren look on during the men's curling round robin session against Canada, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Sweden's Oskar Eriksson in action during the men's curling round robin session against Canada, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
Canada's Brad Jacobs and Marc Kennedy in action during the men's curling round robin session against Sweden, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)
