A home draw is nice, but I'm not so sure it's the tie we really wanted. Charlton are flying - they will be as confident as we were when Keegan's third tier Champions-in-waiting took Villa out 11 or 12 years ago. I'd say there's a decent chance of us being picked as a live TV game. This is the kind of tie that TV producers will see as an upset waiting to happen: established Premier League team at the wrong end of the table versus high-flying lower division team with a relatively illustrious past. I think they might be a bit more interested in a game going on in Manchester that weekend, mind.
Agree Captain. They are a team playing with confidence and will treat this as their 'Cup Final'. With the right attitude and the home advantage we should be okay. But it won't be a walk over. On the home bit, they'll bring a big support so hopefully the Club have a game plan - for once !
So, whats the 'game plan'? As you say, big game for us to show how much we've moved forward - should be a good game - and also a big away support - Charlton fans talking about 6-7 thousand going - but, will we be given those tickets??
I imagine as a minimum you'll be allocated 3000 though that will leave half the neutral end which will inevitably be taken up fully by your fans as we usually struggle to shift many tickets for early cup rounds, so you'll be able to bring in excess of 6000. Our home support in the cup last year against peterborough was pretty dreadful. Regardless, should be a good game, hopefully some of our younger players e.g Frei, Kasami and Briggs will get a good run out.
Robespierre, how many Wisla Krakow supporters do you reckon were in the Cottage for your European game? They took up all the away end and half the old stand - 5000 or so?
Normally speaking for Cup games the Putney end is all for away fans. We won't sell out and we should not take this one lightly.
Blimey - I thought they were noisy. If they had nearly three times the entire capacity of the ground, that would explain it.
They've announced the TV live games and we're not among them. Presumably this means it will be a 3pm Saturday kick off (there's nothing on the club site so far). Saturday: Birmingham vs Wolves (12.30) Bristol Rovers vs Villa (5.30) Sunday: Man City vs Man Utd (1pm) Peterborough vs Sunderland (3.30) Monday: Arsenal vs Leeds (7.45)
