On page 6 of the Sports section of today's Daily Telegraph (Wed 2nd Feb), there is an article headed 'Friend dropped after VAR error'. In summary, the Premier League has dropped Kevin (nobody's) Friend from the next round of Premier League matches, after he got the call wrong in the Palace v Liverpool match. So, quite reasonably, Mr Friend is put in charge of VAR for Saints' cup match. It does occur to me that VAR was not going to be used in cup games, but I may be mistaken with this. Either way (Friend looking after VAR, or Friend watching a blank screen), I am not filled with confidence at this decision. We'll just have to score enough 'goals' for Mr Friend to be unable to cancel all of them. Oh, and never let Coventry into our half of the pitch, so any calls in favour of Coventry still leave them a long way from our penalty area.
I'm interesting in what team Ralph plays in this one. Ordinarily he would go fairly strong in the cup. But we immediately follow it up with the two away games to Spurs and Man Utd. Except for our Duracell Bunny Free-kick Extraordinaire, I'm not sure how many will be starting all three matches. And then there's also the two week break we've just had. I imagine a lot of players are eager to get back on the park asap. And except for maybe Djenepo, I doubt any of them need another half week break on top of this.
I think it must have been Antonio in a 2-1 win vs. Ipswich, 2010, also in the FA Cup 4th round - so maybe I'm not such a bad omen: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/8468667.stm
There was a 5-5 draw at the Dell 2 years before it IIRC. We were spoilt for entertainment in those days.
This was the last time we played Cov in the FA Cup, who was that young 12 year old scoring the equaliser?...
Same year as the 8-2 IIRC was a 4-4 at Spurs on Boxing Day. I was there for that too - 2-0 then 2-2 at HT, then 4-2 down then 4-4 at FT. Charlie George and Moran shared the goals i think?
I'm not sure if vaccine checks are still required but even if they are, it takes just seconds to get through. We get to the ground well before KO though, so I don't know what it's like closer to that time. My advice would be get there in good time and wear a vest.
TIL I Die said he doesn't like the cold so I advised him to wear a vest, a mask would be ok but a vest would be warmer.
Shame we've given them more than the required allocation when we've sold out. Not sure when/why we started doing that for cup ties? Provabably fair enough given up/down attendances this season tbh but hopefully if we get through and get another home tie they'll leave more for home fans.
If we win I want the crowd to go for the full scale pitch invasion. It should become an unwritten rule if we ever beat Walsall or Coventry, we invade the pitch afterwards
