Best Possible Outcome
Well how about that then…Middlesbrough at home in the FA Cup quarter final; I don’t think we could have hoped for a better draw. Looking at the teams in the hat beforehand it was evident that the top two outcomes for us were either Brum or Boro at home, incredible really that the chips have seemingly fallen in our favour once again.
The tie is to be played between the 20th and 23rd March, so the floodlights are going to be on, The Valley is going to be rocking, and we find ourselves with the best chance in decades of reaching a Cup Final, perhaps even the first final at the new Wembley (although according to reports, that is looking less and less likely).
The draw only occurred 10 minutes ago, so if you haven’t seen it:
> Charlton Vs Middlesbrough
> Villa/City Vs Bolton/West Ham
> Chelsea Vs Newcastle
> Birmingham Vs Liverpool
Assume that we beat Middlesbrough for a moment. If the other three ties go to form then City will dispose of Villa to and go on to face West Ham in my opinion. City should win that match at home, Chelsea and Liverpool should both have enough quality to get themselves through their ties, so if we can beat Boro, we will have a 33% chance of facing City or West Ham in a Cardiff semi final.
With our luck in the draw this year, would you bet against that? Obviously cup football is a lot less predictable than I’m making it sound, but there can be no doubts that of all possible results this afternoon, I don’t know if I could have picked a better one.
It’s a long way for Middlesbrough to come, the match will probably be televised, so I expect that they will only bring a maximum of 2,000 fans down in midweek.
The only person I have heard react to the draw so far from either side is Ugo Ehiogu who just gave an interview on Sky Sports News, claiming that our cup form is terrible, and that they are ecstatic with their draw as well.
Frankie Valley claims that our name is on it this year anyway, and that he didn’t care who we drew this afternoon. I’m not a great believer in the old ‘name on the trophy’ cliché, but there is definitely something in the air…
posted by CharltonChris at 2:13 pm
3 Comments:
My understanding is that the match must be settled on the night, what a joke. Varney has asked why people are attending fewer Cup games, well the answer is that the competitions are undermined by the orgnisers pandering to the England team and unimaginatively organising fixtures.
I'd rather be able to settle it with extra time and pens at The Valley, rather than trek all the way up there again for a replay.
Kappacino Kid, just seen this from Pedro45 -
As Chelsea/Liverpool are still in the Champions League, their games will be a one-off match with no replay.
As the rest of us are not in the Champions League, there will be a replay if the scores are level at 90 minutes.
And this from cafc.co.uk -
"I don't know how the FA will sort it all out, but they are asking teams to play FA Cup quarter-final matches just 48 hours after a league game," added Curbishley.
"Someone has to play on the Monday, someone has to play on the Tuesday, someone on Wednesday and then someone on Thursday. If you play on the Thursday your following game may be on the Saturday again, so it's a bit of a mess I think. Alan Curbishley
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