FA Cup 2024-25

[Lolmorgan]

Good draw for Harrogate. Shame the BBC tried to turn it into the Man Utd road show.

[Brin]

FA Cup 4th Round draw

Man Utd v Leicester
Leeds v Millwall/Dagenham
Brighton v Chelsea
Preston/Charlton v Wycombe
Exeter v Notts Forest
Coventry v Ipswich
Blackburn v Wolves
Mansfield/Wigan v Fulham
Birmingham v Newcastle
Plymouth v Liverpool
Everton v Bournemouth
Villa v Spurs
Southampton/Swansea v Burnley
Leyton Orient/Derby v Man City
Doncaster v Crystal Palace
Stoke v Cardiff

[CAMiller]

With help from the draw, 17 out of 20 Premier League teams make it through round 3 with Brentford the only one losing to lower league opposition. And they say the romance of the cup is dead? Will it return in round 4 as the home bias pendulum now swings the other way with only 5/17 drawn at home?

A valiant effort from our boys at Tamworth to beat the curse as they managed to take the Mighty Spurs to extra time before finally capitulating. Will Spurs be as valiant for us in round 4 as they face both the MM curse and a trip to Villa Park?

PS With reference to the romance of the cup, I can vividly remember the late 60s through the 1980s and the likes of Charlie George, Ian Porterfield, Alan Sunderland and Ricky Villa making the headlines but I'm buggered if I can remember much of the past 40 years of banality!

[CAMiller]

In all the excitement of our loss to the Shrews at the weekend the World's premier cup competition (don't laugh) got a bit overlooked. In actual fact at a Super Bowl party yesterday, when asked if English soccer had a similar spectacle I was forced to admit that 40-50 years ago we did but now it's been reduced to a joke competition dominated by Premier League clubs who field weakened teams who really don't want to play in it.

Having said that, the MM curse prevailed and now we are following The Villains of Aston Villa as in round 5 they will entertain Cardiff City.

Continuing the theme of Premier League bias in the draw, assuming Forest dispatch Exeter then 7 of the 8 home teams (87.5%) in the next round will be from the top league, slightly skewed when only 11/16 (68.8%) of the teams are from that league. On a level playing field you would expect 14/16 teams to be from the Premier League for 7 to be drawn at home.

[Brin]

Full FA Cup fifth-round draw
Preston North End v Burnley
Aston Villa v Cardiff City
Crystal Palace v Millwall
Manchester United v Fulham
Newcastle United v Brighton & Hove Albion
Bournemouth v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Manchester City v Plymouth Argyle
Exeter City or Nottingham Forest v Ipswich Town

[CAMiller]

Our lads from Villa manage to beat the curse and will now travel to PNE in the quarter final.

Just came across this, back in the days when the FA Cup meant something. Rosettes, rattles, surging crowds, orange balls, marching bands, pitch invasions, Jack Taylor refereeing, no stupid knee slides and virtue signaling on scoring a goal. Oh, and a great result

[jakethemiller]

I was at that cup final Cam and was cheering for the pigs before i knew better, just a young boy then and to me they were never rivals at that time. I've only ever been to 2 cup finals, that one and 1968 both time Everton were playing, just coincidence.

[CAMiller]

With their win over Preston, our lads from Villa have now defied the curse twice. Can they make it 3 in a row by overcoming Crystal Palace in the semi-finals?

With Forest playing City, if they can prevail then for once we might get a decent final between two teams who haven't lifted the cup in our life times.

[GlennMiller]

I was at that cup final Cam and was cheering for the pigs before i knew better, just a young boy then and to me they were never rivals at that time. I've only ever been to 2 cup finals, that one and 1968 both time Everton were playing, just coincidence.

Two finals for me also;

74/75 West Ham 2 v Fulham 0
86/87 Coventry 3 v Spurs 2

Will only make it 3 if the Millers make it - not holding my breadth!!

[CAMiller]

Two finals for me also;

74/75 West Ham 2 v Fulham 0
86/87 Coventry 3 v Spurs 2

Will only make it 3 if the Millers make it - not holding my breadth!!

Judging by what I've seen bursting out of RUFC shirts, nor are most of our fans