Some badly punning title

[dave.woodhall]

Back after the holidays:

http://www.thebirminghampress.com/2012/01/09/why-weaken/

[pauliewalnuts]

I'm sure I heard the ITV people say the average attendance was the biggest in the third round for several years last night.

Can't remember the exact num of years, but it was very surprising.

[Concrete John]

That was during the draw.  I think having the Manchester derby would have had a bearing on that.

[pauliewalnuts]

That was during the draw.  I think having the Manchester derby would have had a bearing on that.

It was only at the Etihad, though, so not sure it'd have that much of an effect.

In fact, Man U played Liverpool at home last season and got 74k in this round.

[dave.woodhall]

Liverpool, Everton, Manchester City, Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal & Chelsea all being at home would skew the averages, but the point remains that the crowds highlighted were poor - particularly the Albion and Newcastle ones.

[PeterWithesShin]

I wondered when I heard that stat last night. Everton and Newcastle had pretty crap attendances and Arsenal haven't played yet.

[dave.woodhall]

I wondered when I heard that stat last night. Everton and Newcastle had pretty crap attendances and Arsenal haven't played yet.

Crap for them they may be, but they were still higher than most grounds can hold.

[Brend'Watkins]

Liverpool, Everton, Manchester City, Newcastle, Spurs, Arsenal & Chelsea all being at home would skew the averages, but the point remains that the crowds highlighted were poor - particularly the Albion and Newcastle ones.

In 3, 4 or 5 years mitigating circumstances wont be taken into account it will be just seen as the average attendance for the 3rd round FA cup 2011/12 season were...

And that's how it should be.  Every year there are mitigating circumstances, do lower league/non league teams chose to play their home ties at the away club, percentage of draws that are local derbies,  day and time of kick off, are games televised?  Interesting to see that there were 41,000 at Chelsea yesterday against Portsmouth.

[Dave Cooper please]

And that's how it should be.  Every year there are mitigating circumstances, do lower league/non league teams chose to play their home ties at the away club, percentage of draws that are local derbies,  day and time of kick off, are games televised?  Interesting to see that there were 41,000 at Chelsea yesterday against Portsmouth.

Not allowed any more, games can only be moved to bigger grounds on police advice and then it will be to a league ground near to the home club.

[Simba]

Clever take Mr. W.

Different observation on the FA Cup and therefore a nice piece of commentary. Pity, as an old timer THE Cup was everything to us in the old days.

I am sure I am meant to say something sarcastic according to Blog lore but - well done.

[Chris Smith]

Just to add another perspective here, if managers don't use cup ties to give some players a rest and look at a few others when can they do it?

Both examples Dave used, Newcastle and Albion, won their games so it was successful exercise as far as they were concerned.

There are others, of course, who make wholesale changes because they don't want the distraction of a cup run but there are legitimate reasons for making changes.

[cdbearsfan]

In fairness to Olbiyun... I don't think they intended to field a weakened team, they have eight players out and fielded the strongest side they could. Agree the crowd was an embarassment, although at least they never claimed they'd have 60,000 queueing for tickets if ever they got back in the top flight like Small Heath and the Weasels did.

[PeterWithesShin]

Much as I hate to defend the Baggies, don't they have a bunch of players injured at the moment? The team they put out against Cardiff wasn't that different to the one they put out in the previous game against Spurs.

[PeterWithesShin]

CD beat me to it, that will teach me to go off and make a drink halfway through writing a post!

[Concrete John]

I agree with Chris in that some rotation in cup ties isn't necessarily a bad thing.  If you look at the likes of Man Utd they also do it in league games, due to the size and strength of their squad.  You could argue we did it oursleves on Saturday and we left Gabby out.

It's a balance thing really and if you win you can claim to have got it right.