Paullow

Just shows that Arsenal match is nothing like over. If they get the first goal, and relatively early, then it's a near enough 50/50 tie.

Yup, Pompey #Cacapa

This will be a harder match than against a lot of bottom half Championship teams. A team from a big city, relatively big ground, that has been in the Premier League fairly recently and enjoying a good season, and likely some sort of feel good factor there. Probably some similarities to Sheff Wed the other year, but Birmingham's future does look brighter and they did pay £15-20m for their top scorer Jay Stansfield. I think it will need to be a lot stronger than today's team. Obviously we don't know why will be sold, if there's anyone new in, who's injured / suspended etc. but, assuming most are available, something like this: Trippier, 2 from Burn, Botman, Schaar (the one who has played less games by the time of the fixture), Hall Miley, Willock (if fit) 1 from JoeL, Tonali, Bruno Murphy Osula, Barnes - Isak on the bench

Jasmine Yeboah

Andy Cole has had a decent game.

You can get the very odd massive surprise (like us vs Cambridge, albeit we weren't going into that in massive confidence), but I hate it when the big team is at HOME to a minnow in a televised game. At least if the weaker side was at home you've got the crowd factor, the unusual pitch to consider, plus will these better players be as up for it and motivated going to a (by their standards) a tiny ground, but that doesn't apply in these sort of matches, and Man City vs Salford will likely be the same later. You like to see a few different ties in the 3rd round, rather than just PL teams against each other, but I would much rather see Arsenal vs Man Utd than a scratch Liverpool side at home to a side struggling in the 4th tier, so I was disappointed that it will directly 100% clash with our match tomorrow.

Brown bottle has answered this, and the answer is no, however, while we are currently in great form and should be looking to finish in the top 6, if we were to lose to Liverpool in the final then that would definitely open up another European spot for the league, which wouldn't be the case if we lost to Spurs in the final and they finished circa 10th. A Liverpool-Arsenal final would also almost certainly open up a European spot for the league as well.

Had to be.

Seems all wasn't right at Redcar Ath. Their Chairman (and money man) and Managing Director have both left. https://redcarathletic.co.uk/news/club-statement-dale-smith-and-ryan-mcknight/ https://fmttmboro.com/index.php?threads/redcar-athletic-leadership-changes.65021/ https://nonleaguezone.proboards.com/thread/1315/redcar-athletic

Aye, I used to browse FoxesTalk occasionally around that period and remember a lot of their fans wanting him out and that he wasn't the man etc.

I honestly swear I did not see this post , but you can bring it back a few days further and include their draw against Everton as well.

Crazy how quickly things can change, this time only two weeks ago on Saturday 21st, well 2 weeks and 7 hours ago, we were 11 points behind Chelsea and about to embark on the following festive fixtures: Ipswich (A) Villa (H) Man Utd (A) Spurs (A) While in the same period, they had: Everton (A) Fulham (H) Ipswich (A) Palace (A) You'd think if anything they would pull further clear, and we'd do very well to match their results. Yet two weeks later we've cut that 11 point gap to just 1 point and still have them to play at home. I was definitely in the mindset that they top 3 or 4 had 'gone' and we were battling with the likes of Villa, Man Utd, Tottenham and one or two others for 5th or 6th place, yet we've managed to beat 3 of those in succession.

There should have been at least 2 more mins to be fair.

They obviously weren't going to keep up that early season form, but that's one hell of a drop off for Aberdeen. 10 wins and 31 points from their first 11 games, but only 3 points (and no wins) in their next 9. They probably would have been happy to be on 34 points, the same amount as 3rd place, at this stage, but the nature of the results completely spoil things and the manager may well be under a bit of pressure - It would have been, and looked, much better had those wins been spread out a lot more.

Scarborough vs Spennymoor as well if we're including York.

He picked up 2 bookings in the League Cup - Brentford and one of NF, Wimb or Chels, can't remember which, so is suspended for Arsenal, that was confirmed during the Brentford match, and this was his 5th yellow card in the league, meaning he misses the next league match. Had he survived another 10 mins, the 5 card rule would have not been applicable.

Misses Spurs and also the first leg of the LC semi final. He was already suspended for the latter before today.

Villa 2 Brighton 2 FT. Perfect.

Thought that was Hoijlund in the crowd there, ha. Spitting image

Flashbacks

Good.