Cardiff FA Cup Match Thread

[The 17 Bus]

I'm not reading all of that

If Coppell chooses to play squad players in the cup so be it...it's the chance that these players have to prove they are good enough for the first team...by being beaten today by the same cardiff team roughly as last week proves one thing to Coppell...that these squad players aren't ready to be used in the first team...nuff said...

Roll on Watford

If that is the case we are oxf*rd!!!

[Big Foot]

I got told a group of Reading fans were kicked out for singing "Dave Jones is a paedophile", is this true?

I think they should all receive strongly worded letters from Clive Doyle

[Royalshow]

I got told a group of Reading fans were kicked out for singing "Dave Jones is a paedophile", is this true?

I think they should all receive strongly worded letters from Clive Doyle

It is true.

[tlcs]

Idiots like that we dont need , shame we cant ban them

[Big Foot]

Ban this filth

[S09Royal]

Ban this filth

Indeed, however, we could say exactly the same thing on the Cardiff Fans giving OUR players abuse on Boxing Day.
As soon as we do something in response they have a hissy fit. If they can't handle us giving a bit of banter back then they should stop doing it themselves. Seriously, not the brightest bunch of supporters.

[Big Foot]

I also heard Cardiff fans tried to get on the pitch again as well as trying to get into the away end ?

[tlcs]

There is banter and abuse , in this case the that was not banter

[S09Royal]

I also heard Cardiff fans tried to get on the pitch again as well as trying to get into the away end ?

What exactly is wrong with them?!
Uncivilised.

[Arch]

The club's policy has brought us these FA Cup games in recent years:

Spurs 2 Reading 2
Reading 0 Spurs 1
Birmingham 2 Reading 3
Man U 1 Reading 1
Reading 2 Man U 3
West Brom 1 Reading 1
Reading 3 West Brom 2
Reading 1 Birmingham 1
Birmingham 2 Reading 1

All good games and great opportunities for our fringe players to develop. I look forward to these games, because it's interesting to see a different line-up. Today I particularly looked forward to finding out how Murty, Convey and Lita would do.

[eleventh earl of mar]

The club's policy has brought us these FA Cup games in recent years:

Spurs 2 Reading 2
Reading 0 Spurs 1
Birmingham 2 Reading 3
Man U 1 Reading 1
Reading 2 Man U 3
West Brom 1 Reading 1
Reading 3 West Brom 2
Reading 1 Birmingham 1
Birmingham 2 Reading 1

All good games and great opportunities for our fringe players to develop. I look forward to these games, because it's interesting to see a different line-up. Today I particularly looked forward to finding out how Murty, Convey and Lita would do.

The clubs policy did not bring us these games at all. The policy has absolutely nothing to do with the draw.

[Southbank Old Boy]

What results would we have got if we'd played a side much closer to our strongest selection the Arch?

Perhaps we wouldn't have had those needless replays?

Maybe we'd have had a few a few more and gone a bit further?

[S09Royal]

What results would we have got if we'd played a side much closer to our strongest selection the Arch?

Perhaps we wouldn't have had those needless replays?

Maybe we'd have had a few a few more and gone a bit further?

And i wonder, and i'll continue to wonder, if we got to the F.A Cup final or even the semi's would SSC still field the reserves?
Mind you, we may have another manager who may do things differently regarding the cup games by the time we reach any final/s.

[Victor Meldrew]

I hardly think that one year of relative success in the Premier League makes us established, second season syndrome ring any bells?

We drew the bigger clubs because we entered the draw at the same time as them, previously we hardly made R3 from the third tier.

Just check the draws we had at different levels. I can recall cup games in the Past, Arsenal, twice, chelsea a couple of times, West Ham (9/11) couple against Man utd inc Cantona, Man city, Newcastle, there are more than there seem to be.

Again I can't dispute your point but they are the exceptions rather then the standard fare, even when we made the stage of the big boys we still seemed to get as many Bradfords and West Broms and Birminghams as we did United et all played in front of half empty stadiums. IIRC we'd never ever drawn Liverpool in a cup before last year.

More to the point is not the reason those games stick out because we were such a small side pre Mad Stad? did Liverpool in the Carling Cup seem such a massive game last year? or Spurs in the FA Cup? I don't recall seeing people queuing up overnight for tickets like they did for United in 96. (Capacity issues aside you see my point?)

Just going back to this bit, in the last ten years the following teams have all made the semi-final of the Cup (quite a few of them more than once):

Portsmouth
Cardiff
Barnsley
West Brom
Blackburn
Watford
Middlesbrough
West Ham
Newcastle
Sunderland
Millwall
Southampton
Watford
Sheff Utd
Fulham
Wycombe
Spurs

The semi might not be as good as a final, but it'd be a great day out and a money spinner for the club and a motivation for the players to play better to win their place in the side

I don't dispute that it would be a great day out but how many of those sides got promoted? Sheffield United were a great example of a team who many felt ran out of steam because of cup runs.

As for motivating the players? I'm not so sure, I think the chance of playing in the Premier League and all the prestige/financial rewards it brings motivates the players quite well. Again if we were a smaller team perhaps, but arguably the players that played today SHOULD have been much more motivated and played their guts out to try and give SSC some selection headaches.

My point has been that whilst we're gunning for promotion SSC's approach seems more then reasonable in todays footballing world. If we were 12th in the Championship right now then I'd be a lot more miffed with the selection but when we're 2nd in a very tight promotion race then I totally see the logic

As for journalists confronting SSC what do you expect him to say other then the points made on this board? do you really need to have another soundbite of "I rate my squad/it's important to keep people fresh/I want to try some new ideas" you know the answers without the questions being asked to be fair.

Whilst I do appreciate some fans don't want to go and see a reserve team in the cup it's not exactly without precedent so people would have a good idea before they bought their tickets what they were going to get. It's not like Man United whereby they force you to buy cup tickets with your season ticket. Also I think that on occasion it's nice to see the next generation/fringe players get a chance to show what they can do, which of us didn't enjoy seeing A-Fed keep out United?

Wrong-those of us who have away season tickets still have to pay for a game like today.
I gave mine away because it was cheaper than spending £50 or so in petrol to go and watch our reserves.
Incidentally Coppell is reported as saying that with our normal defence the first goal wouldn't have happened-well what did he expect from a back 4 that has never played together?

[Southbank Old Boy]

What results would we have got if we'd played a side much closer to our strongest selection the Arch?

Perhaps we wouldn't have had those needless replays?

Maybe we'd have had a few a few more and gone a bit further?

And i wonder, and i'll continue to wonder, if we got to the F.A Cup final or even the semi's would SSC still field the reserves?
Mind you, we may have another manager who may do things differently regarding the cup games by the time we reach any final/s.

Funnily enough I remember being at a fans forum where Coppell said when he picks a team for a game he tries to imagine that it was a cup final and what team would he want going in to a final

[Rex]

What results would we have got if we'd played a side much closer to our strongest selection the Arch?

Perhaps we wouldn't have had those needless replays?

Maybe we'd have had a few a few more and gone a bit further?

And i wonder, and i'll continue to wonder, if we got to the F.A Cup final or even the semi's would SSC still field the reserves?
Mind you, we may have another manager who may do things differently regarding the cup games by the time we reach any final/s.

And why is it that when we get through to the 5th round does the reading support go up!!. With FAC progression this would in all likelihood mean that a stronger blend of players would be involved. Undoubtedly it is great for the fringe players to experience a game of relative importance but as in today they are clearly not as experienced as we would have hoped. Great to see Murty back in the mix, to see Lita probably play his last game for us, sad to see Marek play an indifferent game (amongst others). There plenty of endeavour but no real comtrol or dominance over todays game. Convey had a few sniffs but that was it.
That first goal is a classic example of bad communication in trying to play the offside trap. The second goal was another example of a back four who did not seem to communicate and allowed too many 3 on 2 backtracking occasions.

[AthleticoSpizz]

I couldn't really care, in the last few seasons the cup has seemed pointless and does not have any of the magic it used to have.

Blame the sides who put out reserve teams instead of taking the cup seriously.

It all began with Manchester United not even turning up one year.

[SHORT AND CURLY]

I always used to look forward to the FA cup and always tried to get to the first game what ever division, whatever team we faced. It used to be magical, the dream of glory and potential cracking games with fantastic atmospheres.
Now its been and gone without a whimper.
The magic totally eluded me yet again and this time I couldn't even be arsed to go, because the writing was on the wall right from the start when Coppell stated that the "squad players" would be getting a run out.
Put yourselves in the hands of the management of the opposing side as they know that they have a good chance of progressing if they put out a half decent side. (which they subsequently did) Talk about giving the opposition a head start!

Listening to Five Live and fans of Forest, Southend, Hartlepool, Brizzle City and even Barrow fans just rubs salt into the wounds of the whole debacle.

Dont get me wrong Coppell is our best ever manager and I have always been a big fan, however his one downside is his approach to the best cup competition in the world, which in my opinion SUCKS!

We had better win against Watford or today's episode was a total waste of time!

[Wimb]

Wrong-those of us who have away season tickets still have to pay for a game like today.
I gave mine away because it was cheaper than spending £50 or so in petrol to go and watch our reserves.
Incidentally Coppell is reported as saying that with our normal defence the first goal wouldn't have happened-well what did he expect from a back 4 that has never played together?

I do apologise Victor I wasn't aware of that, does that count for just the 3rd round or is it for any cup game away from home? If it's for any game that's a shocking policy from the club

[Rex]

Wrong-those of us who have away season tickets still have to pay for a game like today.
I gave mine away because it was cheaper than spending £50 or so in petrol to go and watch our reserves.
Incidentally Coppell is reported as saying that with our normal defence the first goal wouldn't have happened-well what did he expect from a back 4 that has never played together?

I do apologise Victor I wasn't aware of that, does that count for just the 3rd round or is it for any cup game away from home? If it's for any game that's a shocking policy from the club

When applying for AST you can apply or opt out of away cup games or home cup games. The HST rule applies where cup games are additional expenditure. Being an AST can only guarantee you the ticket to high demand games such as those experienced in the last few years. myself i cannot be fecked with phoning the ticket line and only occasionally physically attend the ticket office. There are up sides and down sides to each method of obtaining tickets.