Canaries Crash Out but Reds Survive Epic Penalty Shoot Out

In a busy night of action in the Capital One Cup (commonly known as the 'League Cup') third round, the biggest surprise was the defeat of Championship high fliers Norwich City at League Two Shrewsbury, while Liverpool had to survive an epic penalty shoot out to secure their place in the last sixteen of the competition.

After relegation from the Premier League last season, Norwich have hit the ground running in their effort to bounce straight back and currently lie second in the Championship. Their record in cup competitions of late has been dismal though and a trip to Shrewsbury proved another banana skin for the Canaries ambitions of progressing further this time.

A James Collins' header in the second half proved enough to knock them out, although they did have the ball in the net themselves only for Jamar Loza's effort to be ruled offside.

Eight times League Cup champions, Liverpool had to survive the longest League Cup penalty shoot out of all time to eventually knock out Middlesbrough as six players scored twice, after a mammoth 30 penalties had been taken in all. Albert Adomah missed the decisive penalty for Boro, after the match itself finished 2-2 after extra time. The Reds had seemed relatively comfortable when leading 1-0 at half time, thanks to debutant Jordan Rossiter's shot that somehow eluded the Boro defence's efforts to clear it. After Adam Reach had scored on 62 minutes to take the tie into added time, the Reds seemed to step up their efforts and substitute Suso looked to have scored the winner when he netted with a little over ten minutes to go.

As they tried to run down the clock, a wayward Raheem Sterling pass put Boro on the attack and Kolo Toure gave away the penalty that allowed Patrick Bamford to again draw Boro level. That brought the penalty shoot out which Liverpool held on in to go through 14-13 on the night.

There were three all Premiership ties decided, with Arsenal's loss at the Emirates to Southampton 2-1 being a slightly surprising result, although Arsene Wenger did make ten changes from last weekend's side.

Alexis Sanchez put them ahead on 14 minutes, but the Saints drew level six minutes later thanks to a Dusan Tadic penalty and took the lead just before half time, with a cracking strike from Nathaniel Clyne that proved decisive.

Last season's runners up, Sunderland also lost 2-1 to Stoke as Marc Muniesa's brace saw them through, after Jozy Altidore had put the home team ahead.

The other clash of the big teams saw Swansea record their very first win over Everton with an impressive 3-0 performance, with goals from Nathan Dyer, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Marvin Emnes.

Managerless Cardiff's woes continued as they lost 3-0 at home to Bournemouth, the tie being effectively over after only 33 minutes, by which time Dan Gosling had scored twice and Charlie Daniels got the other goal.

Derby County progressed through as they scored twice in the second half at home to Reading, the goals coming from Johnny Russell and an own goal from Alex Pearce after a Chris Martin cross.

Elsewhere in the ties, a second minute header from Michael Higdon for Sheffield United saw the Blades beat Leyton Orient 1-0.

MK Dons were giant killers in beating Manchester United in the previous round and continued their Cup run, as Arsenal loanee Benik Afobe again netted twice to put Bradford out 2-0. Fulham enjoyed another victory away from their Championship woes, as caretaker boss Kit Symons presided over a 2-1 defeat of Doncaster. First half goals from Bryan Ruis and Dan Burn for the Cottagers gave them just enough to withstand Rovers' second half comeback, as James Coppinger scored but Theo Robinson saw his penalty saved.