FA Cup roundup: Alleged racist chanting taints Reading draw with Cardiff | Football

Reading and Cardiff played out a scrappy fourth-round 1-1 draw that was overshadowed by alleged racist and homophobic chanting at Madejski Stadium.

Cardiff went ahead early on through Callum Paterson but Reading equalised in the eighth minute from Yakou Méïté’s seventh goal of the season. Sol Bamba inexplicably missed an open goal from close range as Cardiff chased a second-half winner after Tom McIntyre was sent off for a second yellow card.

Midway through the first half, as play continued, an announcement was made over the public address system urging “away fans” to desist from the alleged chants which the announcement called “not acceptable”. Reading later issued a statement online reporting that “two isolated but wholly unacceptable incidents of discriminatory abuse were reported by a matchday steward in the South Stand … these incidents will be fully investigated.”

Second-half goals from Grant Hanley and Josip Drmic sent Norwich into the fifth round for the first time in eight years with a 2-1 win at Burnley.

Hanley nodded home the Canaries’ opener from a Mario Vrancic free-kick in the 53rd minute and Drmic struck the second four minutes later after Joe Hart palmed Lukas Rupp’s attempted lob into his path.

Erik Pieters gave Burnley hope with a 72nd-minute drive but there was to be no grandstand finish from Sean Dyche’s side as the hangover from their midweek win at Manchester United began to kick in.

League One Portsmouth progressed to the fifth round for the first time since 2010 by beating Championship Barnsley 4-2. Goals from Ben Close, John Marquis, Ronan Curtis and Christian Burgess helped the home side cause an upset at Fratton Park, despite replies from Cauley Woodrow and former Pompey forward Conor Chaplin.

The opener came in the 37th minute when Andy Cannon teed up Close to fire into the bottom corner. Marquis doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time, poking Curtis’s goalward header in on the line.

Woodrow brought Barnsley back into contention with a 30-yard strike just before the hour but the comeback was short-lived: three minutes later Curtis raced on to goalkeeper Alex Bass’s long punt downfield to finish neatly.

Burgess sealed the win with a header from Steve Seddon’s corner 14 minutes from time, before Chaplin got Barnsley’s second in added time against the club where he began his career.