No Benefit to Going Out of The Cup

[nw6pie]

My point is how unlucky we are!
After being knocked out the cup, there is the assumption that you will have a balanced fixture list at least.

We won’t have that. We have a couple of blank Saturdays and they have created Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday weeks later down the line. Our chance of injuries had increased because we go from having no game, to three games a week (2x more than was expected).

Agree with you about the luck thing - there were only 5 NL teams in round 2 and Barnet were one of them; there are only 3 NL teams in round 3 and Boreham Wood are one of them. (If either Wrexham or Chesterfield had been knocked out before the second round, both their games on Nov 26 and Jan 7 would have gone ahead - so at least their cup runs mean they're not racking up points on the board while we're cursing our luck.)

Still, if ourselves and BW get knocked out of the FA Trophy in round three next month, we could always play them on Jan 14 (round 4 day), so it wouldn't be a major upheaval. The problem will come if we or scheduled opponents progress in the FA Trophy and more Saturday games start getting called off for this daft competition.

These are the dates that need rearranging:

Fifth Round Proper Saturday 11 February (home to Eastleigh)
Sixth Round Proper Saturday 11 March (home to Dorking)
Semi Final Saturday 1 April (away to Altrincham)

[upthemaggies]

Best thing about the FA Cup now is the draw. Then when you land a plum tie the reality kicks in that they are probably going to play their reserves. It's got to the stage now where if I see a Championship or L1 side has suffered a giant killing, I'll just shrug and assume they fielded a weakened 11 as well.

It really is terrible that the oldest competition that effectively gave birth to the experience we know and love as fans - the trophy everybody dreamt of winning - is now less important than the League Cup was when that competition was in decline in the mid 1990s. Last League Cup tie I ever went to was Leeds in 1995/96 (after going to the 1st round 1st Leg game with Lincoln). Last non-glamour FA Cup tie I attended was Rochdale 1996/97 having never missed one before that, the loss of interest in the cups was that quick.