please log in to view this image Saturday 27th January 5.30pm FA Cup 4th Round Rodney Parade A decent run of results and performances came to a bit of a halt at St Mary's on the weekend. An away draw isn't the worst thing in the world, but the display by our team left a lot to be desired. This game will see a changed side and an opportunity for some to stake a claim for a starting place. Will anyone grab this chance or will the League Two Welsh side cause another embarrassment? Our hosts are one of football's anomalies. A relatively small Welsh city whose population would nearly fit within the Wembley walls. Their ground, Rodney Parade, is principally a rugby stadium, hosting the Dragons and Newport RFC. Their largest attendance this season was in the last round of this competition, where 6,887 people watched on. They've even added extra seats for this match and it looks like there'll be around 10,000 overall. Some sort of record for them, then? At this ground it is, but not historically. Their largest cup crowd was at their old home, Somerton Park, which was demolished in 1993. 24,000 filled the place to watch them play a top-flight side in 1960 in the FA Cup 3rd round. The score was 4-0 to Tottenham Hotspur. The current Newport team are having a surprisingly good season. Local lad and ex-Newport player, Michael Flynn (not that one), has changed their fortunes dramatically. He took over as caretaker last year with the club on the verge of relegation, facing an 11 point gap to safety. They bridge it in the final game of the campaign and he was rewarded with the managers job permanently. They now sit in 9th place, two points from the play-offs and looking up at greater things. How did they get here? Wins over Walsall and Cambridge got them to the 3rd round and a glamour tie. A third consecutive home draw was quite kind and they faced Leeds United, who are chasing promotion themselves. A battling performance against a much changed Championship side saw them edge over the line at the death. An early goal didn't phase them and they fought until the end to earn a famous upset: No concrete team news yet, but it appears that Toby Alderweireld may return from injury for this one. Danny Rose has started training again, but it'll be too soon for him to play any part. Aurier, Lamela, Winks, Eriksen and Lloris are all doubts and are dealing with injuries and illness. I couldn't find any reliable Newport injury news, unfortunately. Lineups for each side's last league game: Spurs: Vorm; Aurier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Dembele; Sissoko, Alli, Son; Kane. Subs: Gazzaniga, Trippier, Walker-Peters, Foyth, Wanyama, Lamela, Llorente. League form: WWWDWD. Newport: Day; Pipe, O'Brien, Demetriou, Butler; Tozer, Bennett; Wilmott, Sheehan, Nouble; Amond. Subs: Nizic, Lund, Brough, Thompson, Fleming, Wildig, Lang. League form: LDWWWD. Referee: Roger East. TV: BT Sport 2. Should we be at full strength for this one or risk rotation and squad players? Is there anyone that shouldn't play at all or is there anyone who should be included that normally isn't? Do we need to change our style of play to deal with the conditions and tactics?
There's been suggestions that Oakley-Boothe will be in the squad for this Meanwhile, the list of players missing this game is pretty long... Based on that, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few more of the U23s on the bench than just TO-B ITK ALERT
I don’t think we should risk Toby in this game. The pitch not very good apparently and it is not risking him unless he really is 100%.
This 100%! Although the condition of the pitch is described as heavy rather than 'ploughed field' No way should we risk any injury 'returnees' and a mix of squad and U21's will do for me. No disrespect to Newport and this has all the makings of a giant-killing, but not convinced that risking the best 11 would alter that significantly. We cannot afford to lose any key players over the next 4 weeks - end of as far as I'm concerned.
I'd go for something like Vorm/Gazzaniga Trippier Foyth Verts KWP Wanyama Sissoko Holy crap we don't have any rotation options in the attacking band without fielding U23 players do we? Llorente
Hard to pick a team for this one - even before taking the conditions and pitch into consideration - but with United on Wed I see no reason to risk Kane, Davies, Sanchez,Vertonghen, or Son So I am going with Gazza Trippier, Foyth, Dier, KWP Wanyama, Sissoko, Lamela, Alli, Eriksen Llorente Vorm, Sanchez, Dembele, Son, Stirling, Oakley-Booth & Georgiou
Bugger (probably the wrong the term in the circumstances!) Will have to be a chance for one of the youngsters to make a name for themselves then
Anyone willing to predict which of the U23s will possibly be on the bench? Oakley-Boothe is strongly rumoured for a spot, at least one of Georgiou, Sterling or Harrison are likely, and there's an outside chance for either Duncan or Shashoua given Duncan was on the bench for our U23 match with Benfica yesterday while Shashoua wasn't in the squad
Christ, can’t we go even weaker than that?! Don’t want Sanchez, Wanyama, Eriksen or Son anywhere near the team!!
