Football Association Challenge Cup 3rd Round - Stevenage (H)

[LeeB]

I must admit I was getting slightly nervous last night. All the small clubs seemed to be drawn against each other, with the Villa and Man U balls were still not picked.

I was fixing a new catch on the loft hatch whilst watching, I was really nervous and they went on for ages before starting the draw. Fair play, big Mark Wright is now in my good books for having the decency to pick us out first.

[cdbearsfan]

I bet we get moved to the Sunday 2pm but still not on telly slot.

[OCD]

I don't know what's more surprising...not playing United or Chelsea not having a bye through to the quarter finals.

[LeeB]

I bet we get moved to the Sunday 2pm but still not on telly slot.

The other, ahem, 'giants' of the local scene are all away so we should be good.

[cdbearsfan]

The BBC move loads of games to Sunday at 2pm so they can follow them live without showing them live. There were seven matches in that slot last season. I'll believe we are playing at 3pm on a Saturday once it's confirmed.

[Percy McCarthy]

I must admit I was getting slightly nervous last night. All the small clubs seemed to be drawn against each other, with the Villa and Man U balls were still not picked.

I was fixing a new catch on the loft hatch whilst watching, I was really nervous and they went on for ages before starting the draw. Fair play, big Mark Wright is now in my good books for having the decency to pick us out first.

Was it my hero Mark Wright off TOWIE?

[LeeB]

I must admit I was getting slightly nervous last night. All the small clubs seemed to be drawn against each other, with the Villa and Man U balls were still not picked.

I was fixing a new catch on the loft hatch whilst watching, I was really nervous and they went on for ages before starting the draw. Fair play, big Mark Wright is now in my good books for having the decency to pick us out first.

Was it my hero Mark Wright off TOWIE?

No the big ginger freckly one from the eighties

[Percy McCarthy]

I must admit I was getting slightly nervous last night. All the small clubs seemed to be drawn against each other, with the Villa and Man U balls were still not picked.

I was fixing a new catch on the loft hatch whilst watching, I was really nervous and they went on for ages before starting the draw. Fair play, big Mark Wright is now in my good books for having the decency to pick us out first.

Was it my hero Mark Wright off TOWIE?

No the big ginger freckly one from the eighties

Oh okay. Fair play to him then. Giving us a favourable draw just seemed like something that MR from TOWIE would do. He does more or less everything so well.

[Dave Cooper please]

Sheffield United away. Coops, Mike J and Joe will know why.

"We have seats and we haven't tried all those beers yet".

[Risso]

He picked a team that scored twice and created enough chances to win the game. And even if he picked a full strength side individual errors and fuck ups happen. Man U changed things up to. We could and should have won.

At the outset of the game, he picked a weakened team. Whatever then transpired, it wasn't going all out to win it.  It was a shit line up, as just about everybody including you alluded to in the pre-match thread.

I’m not dismissing that he could have put out a better side. But it doesn’t just guarantee a win. Football doesn’t work that way.

Blimey I do know how football works, thanks. You've just harpooned your own argument though. He could have put out a better side. He didn't, therefore he didn't go flat out to win. There may be reasons, valid or otherwise why he chose that, just as there are always are when managers play a weakened side. But one thing it isn't is going all out to win it.

[Toronto Villa]

We didn’t play their full strength side either. There’s no harpooning of arguments. All PL mix up their first team line ups in the early rounds. Some are getting their knickers in a twist because he, an expert in cups and on the back of a win against their first team, did it. I don’t see why this is such a massive deal. He rotated the squad, picked a side that he thought with the right tactical approach could win but we didn’t. We had more than enough chances. It’s not like the side he picked played in our own box for 90 minutes. We fucked it up mainly through our keeper.

[Risso]

Nobody is saying it's a massive deal. Nobody is saying we were guaranteed to win if he'd played a full side. Nobody is saying that he didn't have his reasons for picking a weakened side. What is inarguable though, is that a manager playing a weakened side can in no way be described as going "all out" to win that particular competition.

[algy]

What Risso said.

[Clampy]

It's not a massive deal but people are still wobbling on about it weeks later. It's gone.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Archer needs to start this one