All ties will be played over the weekend of the 7th and 8th of January.
Personally speaking I just can’t help but get excited over the FA Cup. Once upon a time it was a great source of success for NUFC but in my lifetime it’s been more of a case of disappointment after disappointment. Still, we can win it, right? By that I mean we should be taking it seriously, correct?
The first thing I always do is look for the ‘top’ teams to see if they’ve been drawn together, which has happened when you look at the Manchester derby. From a selfish point of view it means that one of them has gone already. The rest all have games which they should win however.
The word should is quite an appropriate word for the FA Cup with it’s habit of producing upsets over the years. We should have beaten Hereford. We should have beaten Stevenage last season. You get my point… Anyway, here is the draw in full:
Middlesbrough v Shrewsbury
Nottingham Forest v Leicester City
Manchester City v Manchester United
Dagenham and Redbridge or Walsall v Millwall
Crawley Town v Bristol City
Doncaster Rovers v Sutton United or Notts County
Bristol Rovers v Aston Villa
Tottenham Hotspur v Cheltenham
Sheffield Wednesday v West Ham United
MK Dons v Queens Park Rangers
Hull City v Ipswich Town
Coventry City v Southampton
Brighton v Wrexham
Fulham v Charlton Athletic
Birmingham City v Wolves
Norwich City v Burnley
Arsenal v Leeds United
Derby County v Crystal Palace
Fleetwood or Yeovil v Blackpool
Swindon Town v Wigan Athletic
Barnsley v Swansea City
Chelmsford City or Macclesfield v Bolton Wanderers
Newcastle United v Blackburn Rovers
Everton v Tamworth
Sheffield United v Salisbury City or Grimsby Town
Liverpool v Southend United or Oldham
Gillingham v Stoke City
Chelsea v Portsmouth
Watford v Bradford City
Peterborough United v Sunderland
West Bromwich Albion v Cardiff City
Reading v Stevenage
So Blackburn first for us then. I never like playing them to be honest and the name Graham Fenton still sends shivers down my spine. They have some for of jinx over us that won’t just be patched up with that 3-1 win over them at St James’ Park earlier on in the season.
However it’s a home tie and we should be looking to progress to the 4th Round of the competition in my book.
There’s that word should again
Kean will be conceding the game surely 🙄 😉 …cup games are rarely easy but I think we’ll squeeze through
I’m a bit Jealous of 5under1and’s draw, canny weekend was had at Peterboro in the championship
richietoon(Quote)
Really hate any game against Blackburn 😕
Nit just because they tend to do well against us, but also because I really struggle to spell Blackburn thanks to my dyslexic tendencies. Something about the way the letters are just kettles me every time 😆
toonsy(Quote)
Should is indeed the operative word. 😆
Premandup(Quote)
simpson–raylor–perch–santon
I suspect this will be next week’s back line. If Luiz had gone in the fourth minute that game was ours…not only that but I doubt very much that Taylor would have got injured, he was running around like a mad man at the end trying to plug all the gaps. Fair play to the lad, he will be sorely missed 🙁 If we sell Tiote for 20 mil in Jan and don’t spend all of it (as well as the money ‘saved’ for Jan) I will be fuming. Not much point in getting angry with this lot anymore though, there’s no surprises really. Will be very sad to see Tiote leave. Don’t like the idea of Pards being made to lie to us about it either.
DevonMag(Quote)
Sauce?
Seriously though we should win but I’m worried about how bare will the squad be after the match away to liverpool then home to man united then the fa cup game all in 8 days, will the team be loads of youngsters?
Billy Bullsh!t(Quote)
Billy – you’re spot on mate, our squad is already that thin that with a couple of injuries we are starting to worry about a possible FA Cup run when really we should be looking forward to it.
Which makes me think, how the hell will we couple next season in we do manage to make Europe and the extra 20 odd games a season that will bring???… we will need at least 5-6 extra players in if we achieve Europe and have those games along with the Carling and FA cup and PL games.
As for the Blackburn game, I think it will be them
playing the weakened team in order to focus on premier league survival.
I’d be very disappointed if we are not in the draw for the 4th round.
Sharpy17(Quote)
With the injuries mounting I’m not really concerned about the FA cup anymore. We will struggle to field a decent team in the Prem let alone trying for a cup run. The ref has admitted he made a mistake in not sending Luiz off but that’s no help to us now. The run of games in December will be very difficult. A challenge for Pardew and Carver. Not sure how they will play it but the back 4 will now surely have to include Santon? If not why was he brought here? Raylor will have to stay in as well as Perch (shudder) and who know who else. If we do sell in January then the owner is truly mad. He will be squandering a huge chance to build a very good side indeed. Supporting the team counts more than ever now but the owner has to show he is involved in a good way in January and next summer.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
To be honest I’d rather have Blackburn at home instead of some lower league giant killing team that can knock us off track.
I think that playing the bigger teams and hopefully getting the results could actually give the players more focus on actually reaching the latter stages or dare I say it, actually winning the thing. 😀
wolfie(Quote)
Canny goal that like. 🙁
Stuart79(Quote)
That goal came out of nowhere like :/
toonsy(Quote)
The problem with trying to bring in a proven centre back for us is that our beloved owner won’t pay competitive wages even if he would pay the large transfer fee. That problem isn’t going to go away so look for us to bring in someone much cheaper from Europe. The injuries leave us with a huge hole in the lineup and no way to fill it until January and then we still have that cheap owner. If Colo can recover quickly (maybe a month out with a thigh strain and back spasms?) we might be able to get a few more points before January but if not it will be a real struggle. Surely Kadar needs to be at least on the bench for the coming games in case Perch is a disaster. Apparently Kadar doesn’t even have a squad number. Not a promising situation.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Santon – Simpson – Perch – Raylor
Think that’ll be it for the Norwich game to be honest. Can’t see any other way 😕
toonsy(Quote)
With poor old Saylor out, I thought the Pieters deal might get resurrected but if I”m not mistaken, he hasn’t played since October with some injury. Anybody now more?
Also, why are people suggesting Raylor at center back? Has he played or trained there before?
Wonder if some MLS defender might get brought in during their off-season.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Has Simpson played CB? I have this image of him as rather short. Am I wrong there too?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
still 8 points above 8th
Premandup(Quote)
To me Simpson and Perch are too short to pair together. Try Santon with Perch in the centre and keep Simpson and Raylor where they are. Hopefully Colo is back quickly but try to get Tavernier and Kadar up to speed as quickly as possible. Kadar is 6 foot 3 I think and he has still been playing regularly for Hungary. A big chance for him if he is up to it.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Perch is 5 foot 11 and Simpson is 5 foot 8 by the way. Santon is 6 foot 2.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Simpson’s only 5’8″…
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
All of this problem with centre backs is on the owner and his owl faced sidekick. We all knew we needed some sort of decent centre back cover in the summer. But apparently owl face knew better. Where is Big Dave when I need him to back me up on this? 😀
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Can Santon play CB?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Geordie2….exactly.
At least Wolves have cheered me a little 😛
richietoon(Quote)
Quiet here… has everyone gone a’taunting on Sunderland blogs?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Yes great comeback by Wolves RichieToon! I think Santon has some experience at centre back FANS but we would have to check back. I think it was claimed he could play anywhere across the back 4 if need be when we got him.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Simpson-Perch-Santon-Raylor with a five man midfield to clog things up?
Norwich have scored 20 to our 19.
Dunno.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
I think that could be the lineup Richie. A five man midfield away from home with Ba up front and hopefully Tiote back. Jonas and Obertan on the wings. Or 4-4-1-1 if Pardew is feeling brave with Ben Arfa playing in behind. If not Ben Arfa out and Guthrie in. Try to get some offense out of Cabaye and Guthrie with Tiote to cover (I’m praying Tiote is finally fit or none of this really works as well).
GeordieTwo(Quote)
That’s actually FSOTC’s line up but if he’s right I don’t mind stealing the credit 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Richie 🙄 have you no shame 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
I think the key for Ashley and Llambias will be to find new places for Sports Direct signs at the ground. How about putting one where they used to sit? I’m not sure they have even watched the games recently so they probably aren’t aware we have injury problems. I can just hear Llamias now: “Alan don’t bring your problems to me we’ve given you plenty of money to sort things out. And what’s this nasty business with us slipping down the table?”
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Kadar has to start otherwise why is he even here.
Simmo-perch-kadar-raylor
JerseyGeordie(Quote)
Geordietwo- there’s one more place that they are soon to plaster their name. The front of the kits
JerseyGeordie(Quote)
Pardew doesn’t rate Kadar at all JerseyGeordie. He doesn’t even have a squad number. He has been quoted as saying he has interests outside of football that are important to him. Makes things a little difficult. He never even makes the bench. But now we need his size. I think you will see him play in the next reserve game and then maybe on to the bench? Not sure. I think Willo won’t play until January and Colo is probably out for at least 2 or 3 games but just a guess. Time to wake up and pull your head out of that dark place you like to keep it in owl head.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Dave….very little 😉
richietoon(Quote)
That’s a horrible thought JerseyGeordie. 😡
GeordieTwo(Quote)
GeordieTwo it is mate 👿 but I would imagine it will be there for the start of next season, but not forever it will be just as a showcase to show other sponsors what sponsorship is as they can be a bit thick and don’t really understand owt about it
Big Dave(Quote)
well i thought the lads played canny well with no luck but we have had a bit of luck in past games ie wolves,qpr pen at m/u ect so we cann ot twist really,two things that i didnt like in pardew interview was 1 with the lad not being sent off changed the game;why? did he want to play against 10 men 2 it cost us a c/h as it overstreched himself because of it????
guess we will have to hope our luck returns next game we will need it
might spoil xmas for jabba thinking he might have to spend a few quid in jan,but then again nah dont think he will give a ****,a budget is a budget 🙁 🙁
icedog(Quote)
DAVE mail 😉
icedog(Quote)
Too true Big Dave. Hopefully other companies realize how we all feel about St. James Park and are too smart to get involved with Mike and Derek and their nonsense. I wouldn’t be surprised if they do something ridiculous like put Blank.com on the kit and tell everyone that the Blank can be your company’s name for the right fee.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Ice 😉 good to see ye on mate
GeordieTwo nah mate SD will do the same job as blank.com
Big Dave(Quote)
Didn’t Llambias say we would buy a striker in January on condition he could sell the stadium naming rights ?
If so, that’s a budget of about £5m to play with.
With a now urgent need to strengthen the defence we will probably sell Tiote to Chelsea and Forster to Celtic for a total return of £25m.
That will give us a January budget of £30m and we can buy a full back ,
central defender , midfield defender , and a striker giving us ample cover to see out this season in a top seven position.
Oh — just a minute , did I say we’d have £30m to spend? Oh well ,never mind.
sidekick(Quote)
Kadar truly needs to get his act together right now. Extra hour every day on the training pitch, etc. This has got to be his last chance to do anything, and after seeing him in the Championship, I have to hope that he can step it up 2 years later
AndrewT(Quote)
How about Trying Gosling in defence ? lets face it desperate times makes for desperate measures .
Axel(Quote)
We can speculate all day long on who’s cover and who’s best cover but I think if Colo’s fit and Williamson isn’t quite ready, then it’s Perch and Colo.
If Williamson is fit, then it’s Colo and Williamson.
If both Colo and Williamson aren’t fit, then I think Santon and Perch.
The top and bottom is…. we won’t have a back four, we will have a back 8 if 2 brand new CB pairings are thrust in because the mindset will be on caution first until we get the full gist of the team we are playing against, meaning we will have to rely on a lot of hopeful balls to the front two which will probably be 2 big front men out of either Best, Ba, Shola with Ben Arfa being an impact sub possibly.
That’s my speculation.
wolfie(Quote)
Another thought is to go all out offensive and use the ” we will score mor goals than you Keeganesque way but who knows.
It’s a game of chess .
wolfie(Quote)
Its just bloody unlucky more than anything. Fair enough to lose one central defender, even two, but all three ffs 🙄
toonsy(Quote)
where’s Fergie?? is he not available yet.
Might sound daft but I’d play 5 at the back.
Simmo…Perch….Santon
with Raylor and Gutti as wingbacks
Guthrie / Tiote / Cabaye
Best
Ba
a bit mishmash but we need protection..
mark(Quote)
na toonsy we have had more bad luck than a lot of clubs,we used to have 3 jokers running the club wise,owlheed,and jabba,we only have two now,luck still hasnt changed 🙁
icedog(Quote)
Mark yeah Fergie seems to have dropped out of favour, as I thought he was a nailed on temp replacement for Jose after the games he got, but then he got injuried but he must be back by now 😕
Big Dave(Quote)
The big problem we’re going to have this transfer window is that the club have a ready made excuse; “Everybody knew we needed a centre back and put the price up, we’re not prepared to pay more than we think we should(yet we fully expect other clubs to pay us way over the odds for our players) and we just ran out of time, yadda, yadda, yadda!
Stuart79(Quote)
Back to previous subject on Taylor and our defensive woes… The following is a club by club list of long term injuries:
Arsenal – Sagna, Wilshere, Gibbs.
Bolton – Sean Davis, Chung-Yong, Wheater.
Chelsea – Essien.
Everton – Anichebe.
Fulham – Grygera.
Liverpool – Doni, Gerrard, Lucas.
Man Utd – Anderson, Cleverley, Hernandez, Owen.
Norwich – Vaughan, Ward.
Q.P.R – Paddy Kenny.
Stoke – Sidibe.
Sunderland – Angeleri, Campbell, Gordon, Mignolet, Wickham.
Swansea – Bodde, Rangel, Tate.
Tottenham – Dawson, Huddlestone, Kranjcar.
West Brom – Gera.
Wolves – Foley.
Villa, Blackburn and Villa area looking good from mid December onwards.
So most other clubs are not as badly affected as us right now, but they are only one or so injuries away from a crisis of their own. Our unfortunate problem is that our injuries appear to be in one specific area! However Willo will be back soon and Colo is not too long, so it’s not all doom and gloom.
Shamrock(Quote)
Shamrock I hope Colo isn’t to far away, and its not one of them ones that go’s on and on
Big Dave(Quote)
@big Dave
I’ve just tuned back in and was curious which other names billy bullsh!T went under.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Yeah Dave, my only concern is Pardew normally likes to make sure players are 100% before they come back. There will be a difficult decision to make thet, especially if our results do start to drop off. Does he bring back a half fit Colo and Willo and risk aggravating injuries or does he persevere with youth and hope it all works out???
Shamrock(Quote)
Boring FA Cup draw but one we should win i reckon. Wanted a good away tie to get a ticket for.
Could have been much easier, but could have been much worse. Do hope we win or least get a draw for a game to go too.
The 59 Sound(Quote)
Troy don’t know mate it was Toonsy asked him first so I was curious mesel 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
DAVE dont want to be a doom monger but thigh injurys are funny things it can be a weeks job then again it can take months it depends on the depth of the injury of coarse, it can seem fixed but can flare up pushed to early,lets hope its a thigh strain m8 😉
icedog(Quote)
Ice thats what worries me sometime they say it’s ‘just’ a thigh strain and they’ll be back in a few weeks. Then they get a niggling setback and it keeps going on and on and on for months 😕
Big Dave(Quote)
a guy that has been missing from blog for months is battys mate komfort unless hes changed his nick??
icedog(Quote)
Ice I haven’t seen Komfort or Roy Cropper in yonks ?
Big Dave(Quote)
aye forgot aboot wor roy
icedog(Quote)
Reet thats me outta here for tonight, catch you’s tomorrow sometime.
Take it easy Lads
Big Dave(Quote)
me to dave,steady away m8
icedog(Quote)
Well, seems like the wheel’s fell off the wagon. Absolutely gutted. AVBarse can say what he likes, without Colloccini and then Taylor getting injured they would have struggled to win, plus we missed loads of chances. Chelsea just had the experience and quality but can tell they are ancient, the spine of that side. Drogba is like an aged Alan Shearer, just relying on power and experience. Unfortunately he did Perch for both. 😐
DJG(Quote)
Good points on here about waiting on Santon, Kadar, and Ferguson to show up now. We’ll see
AndrewT(Quote)
This kind of situation with our defensive injuries makes the transfer window a farse.
They say the window is in place to level the playing field with the bigger clubs. Bullshit.
The bigger clubs have big squads to cover this kind of situation.
Now we have to go through a spell of six games with no centre backs. Its ridiculous.
JJ(Quote)
JJ – It is ridiculous, but it’s not like it’s not been the case for years now is it? the club knew about it and ballsed up by not getting a defender in.
However, I will say that losing three first-choice defenders is kinda unfortunate and unlikely to happen at the same time. We’ve beat the odds on that one lol
toonsy(Quote)
I must admit, I’m a bit concerned about the rapid way things are turning negative from such a positive start.
Not just with regard to injuries and results but the negative brigade seem to be coming out of the wood work with the usual rumours.
I hope it doesn’t happen, but I can see Kadar coming in, making on mistake and those supporters jumping on his back.
Basically Perch will come in for Steve Taylor. And Kadar will come in for Colo.
I think they’ll do ok, but without Colo and Jonas protecting Raylor, I think his defensive weaknesses will be heavily exposed. He just isn’t good enough defensively. Santon has to be given a chance.
Whether it means changing the entire back four. It doesn’t matter IMO. Perch, Raylor, and Santon should have been playing together in the reserves and must have some sort of understanding.
JJ(Quote)
JJ – your right, this will give the negative brigade ammunition and with our players being linked with moves they will be on meltdown!
We are currently 8 points ahead of 8th position though so even if, worst case scenario, we struggle and loose a couple of games between now and Jan, we shouldnt slide too far down the league. I think 8th will be our finishing place anyway TBH.
Sharpy17(Quote)