Of course he should. We're one of 10 teams with an outside chance of making the playoffs with half a season to go. We're not in a position where promotion is a key aim, we're just taking each game as it comes. Imagine what Stewart would be saying if we left him out of the squad to play a Premier League team in the FA cup! He'd be absolutely fuming. On top of that, it makes no difference, he could have easily got injured in training on Monday or in the next match. These things happen in football.
Not having that. It's the FA Cup man. We still talk fondly about our last FA Cup side who got to the final. Its not a "throwaway cup tie"
True but you've got to give Fulham credit - they're seriously pushing up on us. Keeping them at arms length in the box for the time being though
Fulham are doing to top premier league sides at the moment. The fact we are even in the game is credit to us. The fact we are winning is brilliant.
The experienced spine of the team, Baath, Evans and Stewart... 2/3rds missing. So Michu has to prove his worth and I guess the loanee from Leeds also.
Stewart going off with a bad one has probably knocked some of the stuffing out of us. Threw us into disarray last time.
I mean yeh, this injury could be the making of Joe Gelhardt. (not for one second saying he or I are happy about it)
The reward is a cup run, giving 6000 fans one of the best away days in years, giving every player in our squad the confidence that we can compete at the top level and to raise the transfer value of a number of them. The risk was a 5% chance of injury. But not playing him would have pissed him off and potentially left us more vulnerable to a heavy defeat which could have knocked confidence. It' easy to argue in hindsight but the right decision was made.
