Now bear in mind I'm against the Cups when going for promotion, so it's not as wummy as it looks at first. If you get knocked out of the Cup this week then all your remaining league fixtures will be played when you're expecting them to be with no extra games to tire players as the pressure builds. As Saturday's game has already been postponed it doesn't matter for that whether you lost tonight or at the weekend. So assuming you were to go out this week would you rather: A) Lose tonight so that it's 1 less game to play and the players can have a rest before going into a busy run of league games from next week. (you're already going to have 2 games more to play than us and there's an international break coming up as well) B) Lose on Saturday, not have the rest, but be able to look at it as losing to a PL side rather than one in your own division? EDIT: and when I posted this I did think it was still 1-1 tonight
Definitely tonight. IF we have to lose. But i'd still rather win both and i'd take tonight to ET if we had to.
You should have asked earlier Ricardo, it's a bit irrelevant now. I'm really not bothered about the FA cup (and I'm not just saying that because we are on the verge of going out ), if you'd asked me before kick off I wouldn't have minded a win as we wouldn't have a championship game this weekend either way. But taking the positives, I'll be happy that we get a weekend off.
At 1-1 it wasn't too bad a question to ask. It just got me thinking, as someone who wanted us out the Cup at the first opportunity I wasn't sure what I'd want this week in your position. If it had been a Championship side you were going to play Saturday as well I'd have gone for tonight, but it was that "well they were a higher league side" effect on moral that was the difference. Another plus for you, the only bookings you got today were for players that are still miles (6 and 8 more cards) away from a suspension so there shouldn't be any harm from them.
I don't want to lose any game, but even worse is what appears to be some players who aren't bothered if we win. Charlton will be even more of an interesting game now after that performance
Yeah I know, it was a good question. We didn't really need a cup run to be honest, it was fun last season as we were only midtable with not all that much to play for, apart from a very outside shot at the playoffs. It's just been an unnecessary distraction really, could have done without the replay tonight completely!
As I said yesterday, really would not be bothered with a loss tonight (which happened) though I still wanted to win. Poor effort if truth be told regardless, Wellens and Gallagher offer nothing, and Konchesky had of his oh too often shockers! Liability. After saturdays games I expect us to be down to 4th or 5th so a real test of character for Nige and the boys to regroup, refresh and make that final push.
5th and 6th are playing each other on Saturday so a draw or a M'boro win and you're fine. (Watford away at Birmingham, and Cardiff are irrelevent really) EDIT: Can't complain about the media ignoring us, I've just done it myself. We've got Charlton at home.
You really shouldnt be arsed about getting knocked out the cup.... Last thing you want is one of your players getting clogged against wigan... on with the promotion race.. lets hope Cardiff can F up and then the top 2 places might be possible....
Cup runs are for mid-table sides. Seeing how tired some of our players looked tonight, I'm delighted they're not playing Sunday now.
Being knocked out the FA Cup doesnt bother me in the slightest Even if it means missing out of the Wigan glamour tie
Yeah i should of added a smiley Wigan was a **** draw. Had we got Man U then i would have been gutted that we got knocked out tonight. As it was only Wigan im really not fussed
I was think while watching the non-effort tonight, if we weren't going to try, why didn't we just let Huddersfield knock us out at their place? The I remembered that the draw had taken place between the two matches. I suggest we may have made more of an effort if we had a glamour tie waiting... That said, the Wigan match is to be televised, so we've lost revenue from that.
I'm old enough to have seen us lose the 1969 cup final to Man City - (tried to be a brave boy and gulp back the tears welling in my eyes) - I was at the losing semi-final to Liverpool at Villa Park in 1974 ... in my twenties I saw every game on the cup run of 82 where, as a second division side, we lost in the semi-final to Spurs (again at Villa Park - God I hate that place) ... I still hold to a dream of seeing us win that competition and it should IMHO still be the annual showcase event of the English football calendar ... guess you know what I'm going to say.. As I've posted on other threads success in the league and a good cup run do not need to be mutually exclusive ... so for me the answer to your question is I hate losing full stop and don't actually believe there is a trade off - winning in all competitions is a habit - and 'the double' and even 'the treble' are possible if unlikely ...