Injection of Cup fever
“Up for the Cup” seems an ageing comment in football parlance these days. It’s doubtful if either Brentford or Boro will really be up for it considering the condensed Championship schedule and the fact that it's highly unlikely that any side outside of the top six will have a Snowballs chance in May of lifting it. That self administered FA vaccine of elitistism in English Football has all but eradicated the nation still being gripped in fever for the ancient but now slightly tarnished trophy.
Nevertheless Saturday teatime will see Boro trying to avoid being stung by Brentford in the competition. In Boro’s case, the small squad this season has left NW with a bench bereft of the full permitted quota of Substitutes in many games so I doubt he will be risking any serious injuries or tired legs against the Bees.
Brentford on the other hand have just exited the League Cup this week and may still have some Cup fever left in their veins and fancy this one. It has to be said that they must be getting fed up with being tagged as the Championship’s perennial Bridesmaid and never the Bride when it comes to promotion. With that in mind, the game may become not so much a case of who wants it the most but who isn’t so much bothered the least.
I would expect NW to blood a few fringe players like Coulson and Wing who have missed out on a lot of game time by being bench bound. Young Sol Brynn may get an outing between the sticks or even newbie Archer who will certainly have me quivering if he gets the nod. To balance that we may see the return of our very own Fletcher to hopefully improve the flight of the ball on target.
I’d hope to see Wood get a chance along with Spence and NW may even give Sam Folarin an outing. Injuries permitting Howson may also be reintroduced although I’d doubt Grant Hall will be deemed anywhere near fit just yet. Out of those above ten bodies that a possible eight changes that we could see who could stake a claim for themselves in NW’s thinking for the second half of the season.
Marcus Browne is likely to be given some game time to continue his rehabilitation after his lay off which then means a sprinkling of first-teamers to form the spine of the side, most likely Fry, Morsy and Akpom. I would doubt very much if Patrick Roberts will be playing any part especially if the rumours about him leaving are true, being cup-tied would not go down well with potential suitors if he remains south of the border.
Whatever the result I would derive as much if indeed not more pleasure from seeing a breakthrough performance from one or two youngsters as much as making the next round. In fact not being in the next round may be a convenient opportunity to fit in our postponed Rotherham fixture considering they face Everton at Goodison Park six hours before our Kick-Off on Saturday.
Who do you think will get an opportunity? Will NW put out a strong Boro side or will both Managers just use it as a training exercise?
RR
Thanks for the match preview it’s appreciated and a great piece.
One result I am not going to forecast is a ⚽️⚽️ As NW would not want to be involved in any replays with such a small squad.
I think it is his intention to blood a few youngsters and give the likes of Paddy and George a rest. He even may give the captains armband to Sam for the game who has a track record being the skipper at his last club.
I don’t expect any new signings but seeing I’m stuck indoors not talking to anyone other than Mrs OFB then
I Know Narthinnggg !
OFB
Definitely rest and test. I’d expect to see most of the fringe players get some game time with NW’s ‘best bets’ being given a chance to start. Wood, Coulson and Wing seem to be a guarantee along with one of the back-up goalkeepers and one of Folarin and Jones is also likely to start.
Its an interesting prospect.
utb
Just a point. Are there to be replays if matches are drawn? Also won’t it become irrelevant if Blackburn beat Doncaster as Boro would have to postpone the match against Mogga’s team which is scheduled to be played on the day of the Fourth Round. Also Rotherham have already had 3 matches postponed due to Covid (Derby, Boro and Cardiff) with the possibility of a fourth if Luton beat Reading on Saturday as Rotherham are due to play Luton on the day of the Fourth Round. It’s all a question of whom the Millers would prefer to play first of their 3 or 4 postponed matches or is that decided by the EFL? Perhaps the final league positions will even be decided by points per matches played the longer that Covid means more matches being postponed.
I’m in the same boat Bob although it’s a one way conversation as my wife died 11 years ago.
I agree with Ken that it is not making any sense if they have replays in the FA Cup during the COVID time.
Generally I prefer cup replays, yes. But this season is an exception. Frankly there is no time for replays for some clubs. Think about Derby - they will play the Under 23 and 18 players only at their Cup match as their first team are isolating. They cannot afford more postponements.
Up the Boro!
The Boro match at Brentford can be seen on FA Player for free if I have understood correctly.
I have not checked yet if that is valid for people outside the UK, too.
Up the Boro!
There are no replays in this season's competition.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/34651/12048431/no-fa-cup-replays-for-2020-21-season
That the winners will receive £1.8M puts the value of the trophy in perspective to what promotion means to a Championship Club especially considering they will like as not have no chance of winning it. Even the usual £3.6M prize is paltry by comparison to promotion. That £3.6M would just about scrape a mediocre Forward in the Championship let alone his wages.
Ken's point about the complex myriad of possible fixtures for Rotherham and the permutation of other Cup results is true but to "paraphrase" the worlds greatest leader (according to Ivanka) "Put Middlesbrough first, make the Boro great again". Just to be clear that is said with a wistful sense of irony.
Just to veer off the subject a little bit, but not much. The news of the death of Colin Bell took me back in time to a cup match against a lower league side by the name of Bury. I think it was in 1966 but who knows without checking? We were at home, and expecting to win of course. But in a good match (make that a very Good match) Bell gave one of the most impressive displays one could hope to witness. Do not think 'young player scores great goal' or gives great defensive display, no, he looked superb, tall, wonderful physique, speedy, very! Good in the air, Great in front of goal, mobility was great, he was, as they say, everywhere. I will even say that we couldn't even be disappointed in our team, because they weren't that bad, just not good enough to handle Bell, I thought then, that our directors must have been blind to ignore the greatest ever trial match they were likely to see. In those days every lower league side would sell their players to the First Good offer they received, and I thought they should certainly have made them an offer they could not refuse that day, before they left for home. Just to end the story, he was bought five months later by Man City and the rest is history.
home
Belated thanks to Redcar Red for taking over the mantle from Werdermouth of previewing Boro’s FA Cup match at Brentford on Saturday. Your use of quiver, archer and fletcher wasn’t lost on me as it was obviously a reference to Robin Hood. Also I wasn’t sure whether replays or indeed extra time would be necessary if scores were level after 90 minutes as it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with innovations caused by Covid 19. Apparently as both Hull and Sunderland have had their league matches against Wigan and Fleetwood respectively postponed because of Covid they have decided to play each other in a league match that was postponed on Boxing Day. As I mentioned yesterday it’s looking particularly difficult for EFL clubs to fulfil all their matches if there are any more disruptions this season. Perhaps clubs might have to play during the international break or heaven forbid play 4 matches in 8 days to complete their fixtures as has frequently happened in the past due to postponements because of adverse weather conditions. I mentioned the fact again yesterday in remembering how clubs often had to play 3 matches in 4 days over Christmas and Easter in the past and certainly that happened frequently in the season when Boro finished the season in Eindhoven when Boro actually played a total of 64 matches.
Watmore signs until 2023.
Come on BORO.
@exmil. That is great news. The bad new is that he has been nominated for Championship player of the Month award! Let's hope he doesn't win it as I dread to think what might happen to him! 😎
Breaking News
A round of testing was undertaken by the club of its own volition at the start of the week and a number of positive tests were returned.
As a result, the training ground has been effectively closed since Monday and the first team have been unable to carry out any work on the Rockliffe pitches ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup trip to Brentford (6pm).
Further mandatory tests took place on Thursday morning with the results expected ahead of the weekend. The club’s Under-23 squad also joined the first team squad and staff in undergoing tests ahead of the cup tie.
In addition to a number of absentees following the testing procedure, Boro boss Neil Warnock is already without Jonny Howson, Ashley Fletcher, and Grant Hall, who are all sidelined with injury.
The EFL have confirmed that tests will take place twice-weekly from Monday January 11.
OFB
I agree about the great Colin Bell. I was at that Bury match and he looked like a tremendous player and a star of the future even then. He allied tremendous skill to unbelievable stamina.
I felt the same some years later about Stan Bowles playing for another unfancied side, Carlisle United, who surprised us by beating us at home thanks to young Stan's pure skill. It was a pleasure to see a pure gem first-hand before anyone else had recognised him.
Len, I have always thought that all clubs should be on their toes when a club without money has a player who is very good, it is no good 'keeping an eye on him' the best policy is to sign him, before the big clubs hear about him, because they waste no time at all in acting.
Colin Bell to me was one of the best of his era. I always looked forward to watching him play albeit usually via Black & White highlights on MOTD. Shame that a cruel tackle effectively finished his career five years too soon.
Just reading Bob's Covid testing article above and thats terrible news. We will be forced to play a lot of the kids and fringe players now. How unfortunate (winky thing emoji).
When I used to referee the Boro trial games for Harold Shepherdson at the Boro there were some tremendous youngsters who were invited to play. Sometimes you would see a player and think how outstanding they would be as a professional player. Sadly sometimes they would be sidetracked like the unfortunate Stephen Bell or not grow enough like Stan Cummins.
@original-fat-bob I would like to hear more about Stan Cummins. I feel facinated to hear what he has done since leaving Boro. I think he went to Sunderland but what after that? And what has he done for a living after football.
I don't think I never really saw him but I have read about him a lot. A gem as said by Big Jack.
Up the Boro!
Stan was one of the greatest youngsters I worked with at Boro. The other was Craig Johnson.
Boro sold him to Sunderland here are some details.
Legend!
For many, he is remembered as the “Mag Slayer”, others for his wonderful ‘tache. We caught up with Stan Cummins and asked him about his time on Wearside and how it compared to with his experiences at Minnesota Strikers and Kansas City Comets.
Our Stan
At the age of 20, Cummins joined Sunderland in what was then the Club's most expensive signing of their 100 year history having paid £300,000 for his services. True to form, he scored on his home debut in a 3–1 win over Notts. County in November 1979 at Roker Park. Winning the Daily Express National Five-a-side Championship at Wembley Arena that same month, Cummins would go on to score many vital goals for Sunderland including four goals against Burnley (1980), and on April 5 at Roker Park he scored the only goal that beat Newcastle United [that record stood for twenty-eight years until Sunderland beat Newcastle United again on home soil on 25 October 2008].
His most important goal came against Liverpool the following season. Going into the final game, nothing but a win would secure top flight football for another year. Cummins duly obliged, Sunderland were safe. That season, Cummins received the accolades he deserved, scooping two Player of the Year awards including North-East of England Outfield Player of the Year.
In the summer of 1981 he returned to the NASL and played for the Seattle Sounders alongside Bruce Rioch and Alan Hudson, winning the Trans-Atlantic Challenge Cup against the New York Cosmos, Glasgow Celtic and Southampton.
A short-lived stint with Crystal Palace saw Stan return for a second spell with the Black Cats before joining the Minnesota Strikers on a three-year contract in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). The Strikers reached the 1986 MISL Championship in his first season, narrowly losing to San Diego Sockers.
They were to be crowned MISL Eastern Division Champions in 1988 and on April 8, Cummins scored a hat-trick in the Strikers 4–2 victory over Chicago Sting. He was carried shoulder high from the playing field by his team-mates at the end of the game.
The club folded at the end of the season and so Cummins joined the Kansas City Comets for the 1988/89 season. He played in all of the Comets games that season. An entertaining and skillful player, Cummins' career spanned 14 years, 10 years in the English Football League where he made 251 appearances in both League and Cup Competitions scoring 50 goals, 2 seasons in the NASL and 4 years in the MISL, USA.
*Here’s what Stan had to say….
“Playing for SAFC was a dream come true for me!
Two season's under Ken Knighton and Frank Clark. Promotion in 1980 and voted Player of the Year in 1981, tremendous. Playing out of position for Alan Durban for the next two season's, not so much. The fan's never really saw the best of me playing wide on the right being naturally left footed.
Then in 1985 [after a ten year playing career in the old First Division] I signed a three year contract with the Minnesota Striker's in the USA to play in the MISL ( 6-a-side indoors on astro-turf). I loved it, just like when I used to play at the Youth Club with my mate's when I was a kid.
In ‘86 we were beaten in the Championship Series four games to three (best of seven, just like the NBA, MLB and the NHL). We were crowned Eastern Division Champion's in 1987. Unfortunately the Club folded after the 1987/88 season.
My contract being fulfilled I signed for the Kansas City Comet's for the 1988/89 season and played in every game for them that season just like I did for SAFC in the 1980/81 season. The Indoor game was a lot faster than the outdoor that's for sure but being small in stature it suited me more than the big guy's. I retired in 1990. Fourteen years of playing the game that I have loved since I was a youngster at the highest domestic level on two Continent's. Not bad for a North-East boy from Ferryhill.”
OFB
Stan Cummins
He was discovered while playing for Ferryhill School by Ray Grant, the fabled Boro scout who also found Brian Clough. He'd been sent to watch a 6ft 2in 12-year-old called Gordon Hodgson.
Grant recognised the best football brain he'd seen in 40 years. "Perfect timing,
remarkable positional play," he said at the time. Harold Shepherdson amd Big Jack loved him.
OFB
Redcar Red, Thanks for your intro, I don't know about the 'Cup fever' it seems to be more 'Cup apathy' these days. when Was a kid the Monday lunchtime draw used to be a big deal and eagerly awaited. Silence was observed just as it was for the reading of the football results on Sports Report on Saturday evening.
Anyway it's here again massively de-valued by the attitude of the Premiership Elite, timings and other distractions and if a competition ever needed a sort out this is it.
My prediction for today? I'm with OFB and Boro will lose but you never know so Bees 2 - 0 Lions, but then again...
On the Brit issue I feel Mr Warnock has tried with him but is going to cut his losses however that particular permutation works out.
Meanwhile stay safe everyone,
UTB,
John
@jarkko. Sorry Jarkko, I have just established that the match is not available to video stream vis the FA Player but is available on audio via Riverside Live for Overseas players. Hope you can find an alternative stream - RR mentioned Cricfree as a possibility. 😎
In these difficult times of not having much to do, I find watching football on Sky has been a relief. I tend to record virtually all the games, avoid the results and then late evening choose what to watch - but sometimes fast forward if the game is not exciting.
However, I have to say that it doesn’t feel right for football to be continuing when other sports are not, the country is in lockdown and particularly at a time when new COVID cases, hospital admissions and deaths are at an all time high, increasing every day and with no reduction in sight.
The effects of lockdown will take another week or so to start to show any improvement and forget politicians’ forecasts of easing the restrictions around the end of March when 12 million or so people have had their vaccinations because these are predominantly old people without the virus and if they do get it they don’t pass it on. The time to ease restrictions is when new cases , hospital admissions, deaths all significantly reduce and the R rate is less than one. End of rant !!!
I will still watch football on TV but it still doesn’t feel right that the sport is allowed to continue.
Am I alone in my thoughts on football continuing?
Philip of Huddersfield
Philip! with a professional set up and a tight grip on their players, the football World could and should be capable of supplying plenty of entertainment for the great locked in millions. I understand that we are not children, but it is useful to have some distractions with a potential long run under lockdown facing us. It follows that I believe all those involved in the game should have the injection, plus, of course those involved in other sports providing much needed hours of entertainment on the box, Tennis! Anyone?
Just a point. Are there to be replays if matches are drawn? Also won’t it become irrelevant if Blackburn beat Doncaster as Boro would have to postpone the match against Mogga’s team which is scheduled to be played on the day of the Fourth Round.
Blackburn on the back foot at the moment - comment on the BBC FA Cup Live page on the goal that gave Doncaster the lead at Ewood Park:
On first viewing, this is a fizzing strike from Doncaster's loanee striker, Taylor Richards, that streaks into the bottom corner. But the replay reveals that Blackburn goalkeeper, Aynsley Pears, should do a whole lot better. The ball flew through his mits [sic]. Proper paper wrists.
(my bold)
@stircrazy I was watching it on the FA app. It was definitely a howler.
Philip we need the joy of escapism to watch football or any other sport to take us away from ourselves and the news harping on about Brexit sorry Covid !
OFB