FA Cup Draw

[Keith]

You are thinking about it as a fan of the club. Neutrals WILL NOT be excited about the prospect of their local side playing Donny.

Exactly.

It's about the worst possible draw we could have got.

Well, away would make it worse, but even at home, would you swap Donnie Rovers for...

Barnsley?
Hartlepool?
Millwall?
Torqay?
Leyton Orient?
Forest Green Rovers!
Cardiff?
Macclesfield?
Swansea?

As I said, I accept it's not a great draw, but they will be the second highest placed club ever to visit Christie Park in a competitive match! Not only that, but if we get past Chesterfield, we'd even fancy our chances!!! Come on!

[steve mfc]

We're at home though, which is some consolation

I think that's a consolation for both clubs.

Pity it wasn't Arsenal though....

Who were the next to be drawn out!

WAS IT ARSENAL

[The Red Knight]

You are thinking about it as a fan of the club. Neutrals WILL NOT be excited about the prospect of their local side playing Donny.

Exactly.

It's about the worst possible draw we could have got.

Well, away would make it worse, but even at home, would you swap Donnie Rovers for...

Barnsley?
Hartlepool?
Millwall?
Torqay?
Leyton Orient?
Forest Green Rovers!
Cardiff?
Macclesfield?
Swansea?

As I said, I accept it's not a great draw, but they will be the second highest placed club ever to visit Christie Park in a competitive match! Not only that, but if we get past Chesterfield, we'd even fancy our chances!!! Come on!

I would honestly swap Doncaster for anybody in League One or lower as it gives us a better chance of progressing.

However you want to spin it, Doncaster at home isn't a tie that will get the neutrals excited and I can see around 2500 Morecambe fans maximum turning out for it + whatever Donny bring.

Anyway, we need to get past Cheltenham first.

[seasonsinthesun]

And the way Hayles skipped through the defence like it wasn't there suggests we can forget about the 3rd Round anyway. Tuesday is going to be tough, and I think we may lose out, but obviously I hope not.

[marky]

Barnsley?
Cardiff?

Either of those two would excite the neutrals more given the former made all the headlines and the latter got to the final last year!

[Mark S]

And the way Hayles skipped through the defence like it wasn't there suggests we can forget about the 3rd Round anyway. Tuesday is going to be tough, and I think we may lose out, but obviously I hope not.

I spoke to Jimbo last night and he is very hopeful to be back for Tuesday. Back in full training on Monday!

[seasonsinthesun]

Yes Mark S, but can Jimbo stop the Hayles Hurricane rushing through??

[RedRedWine1]

I've read a few negative comments about possibly drawing Doncaster. I'm actually quite excited at the possibility of renewing old rivalries with Rovers. We should be looking at 3000+ minimum for this game. 15,000 went to Wembley, asking for a fifth of them to come back to possibly cheer on another historic first isn't much to ask surely (should we get past Chelters)?

Marky, you seem to have lots (mosty negative) things to say, but see few games.....why?

[mounse mk2]

My (day) dream of playing the filth at the carpet warehouse will have to wait.

Beat Cheltenham.

Beat Donny.

Jimbo scores a header in front of The Sretford End. (And then proceeds to kick Ronaldo around Old Trafford)

[marky]

I imagine I say a great deal for similar reasons as someone else who doesn't see as many games as they would like, namely the Manx one As for being negative, I'm naturally pessimistic. For what it's worth, there are 21 teams in the Championship that I would personally have preferred but the Donny game does give us the best chance of progressing.

[durianmuncher]

The optimism on here now is amazing.
Howe Magic, please take note!

I can't quite get my mind into the 'we can beat Doncaster' mode (and then get drawn against a Premier side!) because Cheltenham will provide a huge huge test tomorrow and looking much beyond that at this stage, in my opinion, really is the land of dreams. Poco a poco, step by step, with full concentration tomorrow's game. I still feel it would be a massive achievement if we do actually manage to beat them.

[Christies Child]

I can't understand all this crap about 'it only being Donny'...it's the 3rd round of the FA cup and with some promotion, assuming we get thru', then it's an ideal opportunity to get into Round 4.

Sorry everybody, but for me it's ideal.....and we're at home for f's sake!

[Abbo]

We have a good chance of getting into the 3rd round of the fa cup and some people are moaning that we are only drawn at home to a championship side, that will bring a very good following re ignite the lancashire=yarkshire thing, some people just arnt satisfied !!!!!!!!!!!
But first we have to get past Cheltenham, i thought we did ok on saturday but it was a case of the same old stuff, score first and we are unable to finish them off, although Hayles definatley fouled Yates before he scored, i for 1 was quite happy when the ref stopped the game as i thought they were starting to get on top but we live to fight another day.
And well done to both of the clubs boards, common sence prevailed.

[Howe Magic]

totally agree with abbo - i am quite lucky to have seen the shrimps in the 3rd round twice before and to be honest if we can beat cheltenham tomorrow night i would not have cared who we got be it doncaster rovers or forest green rovers we will be competing in the FA CUP 3RD ROUND (I dont know what some people want at this club - we are competing in the football league and fighting for a place in the last 64 of the fa cup. ....i just wonder if some of the people on this board would have been complaining about drawing doncaster in 3rd round of the fa cup if we had still been a non league club which is still less than two years ago....

[shrimper]

i just wonder if some of the people on this board would have been complaining about drawing doncaster in 3rd round of the fa cup if we had still been a non league club which is still less than two years ago....

No, they wouldn't but, in a way, you answer your own point.

It's not long ago that Cambridge at home was seen as a great draw for us and it attracted a crowd that was well above the average home gate.

But we've moved on a lot since then and such draws are no longer seen - by the floating fan - as a big deal any more.

When we are regularly playing home league games against the likes of Bradford, Rochdale, Bury, Notts County and Brentford, then a draw that pits us against Donny - who we played in the Conference not long ago - isn't a massive crowd-puller.

Whether it's the third round, or the fourth round doesn't really have any significance to anyone other than us die-hards and statisticians.

We will all do our best to build the game up but people aren't daft and our average home gate will only be significantly increased if we get drawn against a 'big' club.

And the term 'big club' has changed for us in the past few years.

Donny won't be chuffed either knowing they are away to a team (whoever wins on Tuesday) that isn't a 'glamour' tie for them but which is eminently loseable.

The positive is that, if we can beat Cheltenham (which I think will be even tougher now that they've had a good chance to see what they need to do to cope with our system) we've again got a game that we can go into thinking we have a chance of causing another upset.

[B.H.C #3]

Nice post Shrimper.

[marky No.1]

TV replays announced:

http://www.thefa.com/TheFACup/TheFACup/ ... TVTies.htm

[John L]

Try this link instead:
http://www.thefa.com/TheFACup/TheFACup/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2008/12/FAC_TVTies.htm