The “Magic of the FA Cup” or not.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

The “Magic of the FA Cup” or not.

Championship leaders Burnley travel to Premier League outfit Bournemouth for a third round FA Cup tie on Saturday (07.01.2023) with a three o’clock designated kick off time.

The multi-million-dollar questions for both teams surely is, “How bad do you want it?” Bournemouth will no doubt wish to focus their energy to help secure long term English Premier League survival and the FA Cup may provide a futile distraction from that objective, while an extended FA Cup run may not suit Vincent Kompany’s promotion chasing Clarets.

Fans often talk about the “Magic of the FA Cup” but the reality for the smaller clubs like Bournemouth and Burnley is they are in contemporary terms merely chasing pipe dreams. Burnley’s last FA Cup Final came in May 1962 when the Clarets lost a highly entertaining game against Tottenham Hotspur, and Bournemouth never managed to reach the final of this competition in their entire history.

Most of the current fans' “chatter” is centred on which player can be added to either of Saturday’s protagonists to ensure promotion success for Burnley or Premier League survival for Gary O’Neil’s Cherries. If transfer rumours are to be taken at face value, O’Neil is casting covetous glances at his former Bristol City teammate - Clarets midfielder Josh Brownhill. It would make little sense at this critical juncture in the Championship programme for Vincent Kompany to sanction the sale of one of his key players.

The Clarets and Cherries have met in the FA Cup on 5 previous occasions, the Cherries have won 1, drawn 1 and lost 3. The draw was a 1-1 fixture at Dean Court with the Clarets handing the Cherries a 7-0 thrashing in the replay at Turf Moor.

There is little news from either camp on injury updates following the heavy festive schedule, but it is hard not to see Vincent Kompany using Saturday’s fixture to provide much needed game time for the likes of Scott Twine, Samuel Bastien and Darko Churlinov without compromising his team’s effectiveness.

O’Neil may well use the tie to gauge how his team performs against the Championship’s current star act. When 5 o’clock Saturday teatime comes round, we will hopefully see which team wanted it badly enough to make the fourth-round. (TEC)

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[army88]

I’m a firm believer BT that if your in a competition you should do your best to win it , who knows what can happen - and if you lose we can always say we’re concentrating on the league 👍

[The Bedlington Terrier]

I’m a firm believer BT that if your in a competition you should do your best to win it , who knows what can happen - and if you lose we can always say we’re concentrating on the league ��

Dyche made it patently obvious the EPL took precedence over the cup competitions army88. It will be interesting to see how VK sees it. He was clearly not heartbroken about the Carabao cup exit.

Personally, I hope we give the Cherries a good run for their money in a tight 1-0 defeat. Onwards & forwards.

[Swissclaret]

For me, I don’t care what competition it is - winning matches breeds a winning mentality. It is a fact that we haven’t got to a final since 1962 but that doesn’t mean we should not give it our best shot. The magic of the Cup was and is upsets, over-achieving, shock results. No one is guaranteed getting to the Final.

I don’t buy into playing a second string team, concentrating on the league. A good cup run can help with confidence in the league. If we beat the Cherries, a PL outfit, that says to me we can potentially compete in the PL.

Let’s approach every match win the same mentality, believing in the squad and see what happens.

[alfinyalcabo]

Whatever the result,its more experience of playing teams from the Premier league,we did ourselves proud at Old Trafford and was unlucky not to get ourselves a draw but for bad finishing and a Ratchford magical moment.
My main concern is that we don't pick up any serious injuries for our league run -in.

[sinkov]

We need to win, we need a Cup run, we need the money.

[kritichris]

As I said before Bournemouth will be a good test of where we are at and we should try to win it, but I agree with swiss, we should try to win every game we play, even pre season friendlies, of which I've attended loads.

[sinkov]

I wonder if BPF will get another run out, wouldn't surprise me if he did.