rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Jan 24, 2011 19:31:12 GMT
On the day we were due to travel to our local Derby this year, (a mere 130 odd miles to Cheltenham ;D) we now have the biggest match since that perfect day at Wembley almost two years ago. For the seventh time we are through to the fourth round and possibly this represents our best chance of progressing to the fifth round for the first time. Our previous woes in the fourth round are as follows. (Source - Budleigh)
1948/49 - Lost 1-0 away at Brentford
1954/55 - Lost 0-1 home against Huddersfield (Good crowd that day).
1970/71 - Lost 3-0 away at Leicester
1982/83 - Lost 2-3 against Sheffield Wednesday
1989/90 - Lost 1-0 away at Blackpool
2008/09 - Lost 0-1 against Coventry
This year's campaign has been consistent with 1-0 Victories away at Mansfield and home against Walsall and Carlisle with Benyon, Kee and O'Kane scoring the respective winners.
Crawley are having their best ever season and will be tough , tough opponents to beat. They have a game against Cambridge United on Tuesday first that Evans wants to win although he is quoted as saying he needs different players and formation to beat them as opposed to us. Their impressive progress is as follows:
Preliminary Round: Won away 1-0 against Newport
First Round: Won away 5-0 against Guiseley
Second Round: Drew 1-1 at home against Swindon before winning 2-3 in the replay.
Third Round: Won at home 2-1 against Derby.
It is not a bad time to play Crawley as we have had two clear mid weeks leading up to this match and a pretty settled XI that I can't see Buckle changing. I assume that Benyon will have recovered sufficiently to start but as always, Kee will be there to deputise or come on later in the match and I feel his strength will be a good asset in this match. Certainly, this will be a nervous game for the fans and continuing to miss our chances won't help. Death or Glory awaits......
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Post by lucy6lucy on Jan 24, 2011 20:14:43 GMT
This is going to be a nervous Saturday afternoon, a win and we will most certainly as a club be in the black, defeat and we will most likely see a couple depart and with so little time to add could see our season end in dismay. Though we shouldn't be so negative(one never budgets for a cup run), this was always going to be our saving grace for financial gain and success this season. We may bemoan playing Crawley, but at the start of the season you would have taken a non-league side at home in the 4th round. Save Old trafford for a later round. But come on lets me positive this has to be our best chance ever of getting to R5. If only we could get Hargreaves for a one off return, I feel we will need his grit and never say die attitude come 4.40 when we are 1-0 up  ...... |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jan 24, 2011 20:16:19 GMT
I can’t remember the last game I looked forward to as much as this one and as its only Monday it seems ages away, but I know how fast time flies and I’ll soon be standing outside the ground waiting to go in. If he had been playing Derby it would have just been another FA Cup game as far as I was concerned and would not have got me half as excited as an FA Cup game against Crawley.
If we had say played well against Derby and lost, then the defeat while disappointing would not have been to hard to take and I’m sure we would have been pleased we got as far as we did in the cup.
That is not going to be the case against Crawley and I think we all must be suffering from so many mixed emotions right now. Yes we are excited about the game and yes we believe we can win it and make club history and be in the hat for the firth round. But somewhere in us is a fear of how we would feel if we did lose the match. Seeing two certain people celebrating in our ground would generate even in me a very mild mannered and natured person, feelings of real anger even bordering on hate.
It does not really bear thinking about and I for one will remain fully positive about the outcome of the game and will deal with any emotions one way or the other after the match.
Make no mistake about it; this is a game that will have your emotions feeling like they are on a roller coaster all afternoon, but it is games like this that make us understand why we love the game of football so much.
What else could you do for 90 minutes where you experienced every single emotion going? And not just every emotion going but those emotions changing nearly every single minute. One second on a high and then on a low, then despair that turns in to hope and back again. Yes its going to be one of those afternoons up at Plainmoor and not a game for the faint hearted for sure.
Rob is so right, this is going to be a very tough game and our players will know they have been in one when the final whistle gets blown. But it’s a game they should not go into with any fear, if they all do their job then the game is there to be won. If they don’t do their jobs then its there to be lost as Crawley are a very good side and we will just have to make sure we are better.
It’s going to be a party up at Plainmoor with a party atmosphere and as fans we must play our part and show our support to our players. If things go wrong, a pass goes astray etc, it’s not the sort of game to get on their backs but encourage them on again. We really can and must be the 12th man that gives our team the advantaged over Crawley.
I’m sure Bucks will stick to the same line up and formation to start the game as he has the last few games as I think its important to try and go at Crawley from the start. I believe Elliot might have a broken nose? Will we see a masked TUFC player make history for us again?
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Post by loyalgull on Jan 24, 2011 23:08:18 GMT
waited for this match thread to appear,this is undoubtedly the game that could map our future out a little bit more.It is next to our wembley triumph the most important game in recent years,at the end of it could be untold riches,but the little matter of crawley stand in the way.Despite who is at their helm,they have been impressive this year,backed up mainly by a generous chairman who isnt afraid to splash the cash,and it appears to be working thus far.On paper we should beat them,but we never make things easy for ourselves,if benyon and or kee are firing and the defence does its job we should be ok,i reckon 2-0 to us,with the usual hairy moments as per usual by us,just to keep the blood pressure and stress levels up.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Jan 24, 2011 23:16:44 GMT
We do have a good bunch of Crawley fans on the TFF, so I'm sure this thread will end up a very interesting one.
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Post by stuartB on Jan 24, 2011 23:24:16 GMT
We do have a good bunch of Crawley fans on the TFF, so I'm sure this thread will end up a very interesting one. Like many others have said, we have absolutely no problems with Crawley and their fans (and wish them well in the conference) but as for the fat crook and the cheating sidekick that's another story!! |
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keyberrygull
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Post by keyberrygull on Jan 25, 2011 7:50:13 GMT
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Post by jackospinking on Jan 25, 2011 9:34:36 GMT
MATE, THIS IS SO BORING NOW!!, its been said and read about a thousand times!!, lets just talk about football in the FA cup 4th round this weekend , and a chance for one of our clubs to make history!! COYR |
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chelstongull
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Post by chelstongull on Jan 25, 2011 9:40:26 GMT
MATE, THIS IS SO BORING NOW!!, its been said and read about a thousand times!!, lets just talk about football in the FA cup 4th round this weekend , and a chance for one of our clubs to make history!! COYR I can't understand why they didn't let Ronnie Biggs become the Bank Manager of the local HSBC branch in Torquay . |
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Post by jackospinking on Jan 25, 2011 10:08:49 GMT
MATE, THIS IS SO BORING NOW!!, its been said and read about a thousand times!!, lets just talk about football in the FA cup 4th round this weekend , and a chance for one of our clubs to make history!! COYR I can't understand why they didn't let Ronnie Biggs become the Bank Manager of the local HSBC branch in Torquay . hes the manager, not the finance director!! there is a big difference between crawley and what he was allowed to get up to at Boston Utd, |
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Post by alunmeerkat on Jan 25, 2011 16:23:22 GMT
Dave is correct - it is a massive game and is certain to be a nerve wracking affair. The result is probably too close to call in truth. Lets hope we get a referee who is able to do his job properly and is not going to be intimidated by the likes of Evans, unlike the official who bottled it by refusing to red card Tubbs in the match against Derby.
They are a good side but really their players are non league players for a reason. They don't have a team full of players that League 1 sides want to sign. It is complete hype and bullshit.
It is hard to see Ellis and Branston being as generous as the two Derby centre halves were.
The key to me might be the number of games that Crawley have played recently and with another mid weeker they have certainly clocked up some mileage on heavy pitches lately.
I think their two centre halves are vulnerable to hard running forwards and with Benyon and Zebroski we certainly have the ammo to cause them huge problems.
I would not be suprised to se us winning it in the second half.
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tufc01
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Post by tufc01 on Jan 25, 2011 19:08:12 GMT
Dave is correct - it is a massive game and is certain to be a nerve wracking affair. The result is probably too close to call in truth. Lets hope we get a referee who is able to do his job properly and is not going to be intimidated by the likes of Evans, unlike the official who bottled it by refusing to red card Tubbs in the match against Derby. They are a good side but really their players are non league players for a reason. They don't have a team full of players that League 1 sides want to sign. It is complete hype and bullshit. It is hard to see Ellis and Branston being as generous as the two Derby centre halves were. The key to me might be the number of games that Crawley have played recently and with another mid weeker they have certainly clocked up some mileage on heavy pitches lately. I think their two centre halves are vulnerable to hard running forwards and with Benyon and Zebroski we certainly have the ammo to cause them huge problems. I would not be suprised to se us winning it in the second half. I couldn’t agree more. You obviously did listen to Bucks interview after Saturdays game  Particularly the bit about the fact that at the end of the day they are still Non League players, not sure if any of them have any league experience, but as you rightly say no league clubs wanted to sign them. Even if some league clubs did sniff around, it wouldn't have been all 11 of them. We have 11 league players and 3 of them are wanted by clubs further up the league pyramid. Also the fact that they have played so many games will begin to tell in the end. I’m sure that when we were rearranging games we made sure that this week was kept free. Regarding Branston and Ellis not only are they not likely to be as generous as the Derby centre halves, but having made a few errors in the last couple of weeks I would have thought that may have focused the mind even more and no doubt Bucks will have been working out cutting out errors as well. You can also throw in the mix that most of our players were here when we played them during our 2 seasons in the conference and a couple of those games got a bit fractious so they will want to put one over on Evans, so I’m sure we will be up for it. In my opinion it’s ours to lose. The only bit I will disagree with is I can see us taking an early lead and extending that lead in the second half, although I wouldn’t mind in the least you coming back on here on Saturday evening after we score the winner in the 96th minute telling me ‘I told you so’. |
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Post by Budleigh on Jan 25, 2011 19:29:30 GMT
I'm being quoted... I feel like a grown up reporter now!
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Post by aussie on Jan 25, 2011 19:34:12 GMT
I'm being quoted... I feel like a grown up reporter now! Next you`ll be braggin` about your pencil and it`s lead content!  |
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Post by Budleigh on Jan 25, 2011 19:44:07 GMT
Unfortunately I've lost my sharpener!!
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