[Albion] FA Cup.. the Sunday Times..

[drew]

Why blame any club for being pragmatic.

The FA have done more damage to the FA Cup than any football club, with allowing Mufc to take part in a World club competition in the hope of influencing a failed bid for the World Cup Finals, instead, defending their place as Cup holders.
Allowing the cup competion to be sponsored, like some tawdry ITV celebrity game show, to limiting replays to one per tie, and none at all from the quarter finals onwards, to having penalty shoot outs to decide ties, semi finals at Wembley, the Final at 5.30 on a Saturday, instead of 3.00 o'clock as was the tradition. Having Premier league games on the same day as the final, and all as a money grabbing excercise to pay for their vastly over priced stadium.

The FA have ruined the FA Cup as the foremost domestic Cup competition in the World.

Almost as clichéd a response as the article in the OP.

The reason why the FA cup is treated the way it is is because of one thing and one thing only. Money. It pales into insignificance in terms of income when compared to the rich pickings of the Premier League which is why teams in the Premier league prioritise their place in the league and why those in the championship strive to get there.

Of your comments above, I only agree about the neutral grounds for semis and the final being at 3 and the only game that day. In my opinion the others don't make a blind bit of difference.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

A crowd of 27,000 would suggest this match was anything but a chore to go to with no allure.

Exactly, I couldn’t care less about the negative articles about the competition. I am loving this cup run. We are in the QUARTER FINAL !!!

 

[ewe2]

Part of the "Cup Magic ", is that "Giantkilling ", doesn't always happen to order!

 

[1234andcounting]

"Sunday Times journalist Michael Calvin sat at his keyboard, turning out a piece of hack football journalism. Sadly, this was not the season for him to rendezvous with the Pullitzer Prize."

 

[Sheebo]

Glad to see another reference to our excellent atmosphere

I didn’t see this game like that at all. It felt very special and important tbh. I think it would have felt like he described if it was League Cup or 3rd round of FA but I liked it personally and our team was strong.

 

[trueblue]

Quite accurate isn’t it?

Really? A glorified reserve team? Krul - has played at the World Cup, a player with proven Premier League pedigree. Bruno - our Captain. Uwe and Goldson - both trustworthy at top level. Suttner - very much part of the first team picture. March - first team player. Knockaert - first team player. Stephens - first team player. Kayal - first team quality. Ulloa - Premier League winner. Locadia - club record signing.

So, no, it's utter rubbish. We've moved on from the days when a Premier League side playing a 'weakened' team meant fielding all their kids. Nowadays, many of them are full internationals getting a run out from a large, high quality squad.

Propagating that myth is one reason for the decline of the FA Cup as people who don't know better buy into it.

 

[Driver8]

Exactly. A writer who has to churn out some tired old cliche about day old petrol station roses! I'm surprised the 'sun didn't go down over the East Stand on Coventry's FA Cup ambitions'

West Stand surely?

 

[studio150]

Sunday Times, tomorrows fish 'n' chip papers

 

[Hampster Gull]

Why blame any club for being pragmatic.

The FA have done more damage to the FA Cup than any football club, with allowing Mufc to take part in a World club competition in the hope of influencing a failed bid for the World Cup Finals, instead, defending their place as Cup holders.
Allowing the cup competion to be sponsored, like some tawdry ITV celebrity game show, to limiting replays to one per tie, and none at all from the quarter finals onwards, to having penalty shoot outs to decide ties, semi finals at Wembley, the Final at 5.30 on a Saturday, instead of 3.00 o'clock as was the tradition. Having Premier league games on the same day as the final, and all as a money grabbing excercise to pay for their vastly over priced stadium.

The FA have ruined the FA Cup as the foremost domestic Cup competition in the World.

Agreed. Money men

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Seems like Michael Calvin of the Sunday Times wasn't too impressed yesterday. ."[/I]

In my view he can **** right off. Who is he writing for? Crawley Town supporters desperate for a reason to be cheerful? He can blow all that garbage out his squeeky ring piece.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

FA cup has been damaged since Man U were pressed to not be in it in order to fulfill some nonsense arrangement to play abroad. It would be poetic justice if, this season, when its the only thing they have a realistic chance to win, and they appear to be gagging to do so, we blow them out. ManU *****. I ****ing hate them. Cheats. Whiteside. ****.

 

[Spicy]

Seems like Michael Calvin of the Sunday Times wasn't too impressed yesterday. Describing our side as 'a glorified reserve team' seems a big exaggeration considering most of the players would step into the Premier League line-up at a moment's notice. Sure, the FA Cup's not what it was, but that's in part down to the cynical tone of coverage like this I'd say....

"So much for the romance of the FA Cup. This had all the allure of a leftover bunch of roses purchased on the cheap from a garage by a desperate suitor on February 15. A glorified reserve team eased Brighton into the quarter- finals of a competition that was once the stuff of legend.

The significance of the 64 places that separate Coventry City and their Premier League opponents was vividly expressed in a match that was dispiritingly one-sided despite Chris Hughton making nine changes to protect first-team regulars for next Saturday’s proverbial relegation six-pointer against Swansea.

That occasion will be everything yesterday’s victory was not — intense, compelling and critical to the club’s short-term future. The Amex crowd might have indulged in clichéd chants about the proximity of Wembley, but the sense of this as a chore, professionally undertaken and completed, was stark. Manchester United await in the last eight."

Seems to me like a lot of hot air by some pompous git who is too much of a Premier League snob to ever give us credit.

 

[looney]

Two bit hack denied giant killer headline indulges in sour grapes.

It escapes his notice that weaker sides are more beatable.pfffft wotevah.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Calvin is a decent journalist, not a ‘two bit hack’ and has written some splendid books about all levels of football. He knows his onions, he isn’t just a premier league fan boy.

I’m sorry to say it but the FA cup was ruined years ago by the FA and clubs/managers taking part and is now quite insignificant to most managers, owners and fans.

And we made 9 changes to the side that started out last league game (which was of course absolutely the correct thing to do) so he is well within his rights to call it a reserve team.

 

[Winker]

We won 3-1 and are into the quarter finals.

Sorry - what was the question?

 

[trueblue]

Calvin is a decent journalist, not a ‘two bit hack’ and has written some splendid books about all levels of football. He knows his onions, he isn’t just a premier league fan boy.

You're right. So he's made a bit of a fool of himself with that nonsense.

 

[Creaky]

I find it telling that now we are in the quarter finals of the FA Cup any suggestion that we have played a weakened team are met with denials - yet this board is full of posts declaring how much more important survival in the PL is than a cup run and that CH shouldn’t take any risk with our PL survival by taking cup games ‘seriously’.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Really? A glorified reserve team? Krul - has played at the World Cup, a player with proven Premier League pedigree. Bruno - our Captain. Uwe and Goldson - both trustworthy at top level. Suttner - very much part of the first team picture. March - first team player. Knockaert - first team player. Stephens - first team player. Kayal - first team quality. Ulloa - Premier League winner. Locadia - club record signing.

So, no, it's utter rubbish. We've moved on from the days when a Premier League side playing a 'weakened' team meant fielding all their kids. Nowadays, many of them are full internationals getting a run out from a large, high quality squad.

Propagating that myth is one reason for the decline of the FA Cup as people who don't know better buy into it.

But surely Mike Calvin's point is that very few of these players will start against Swansea, and he's right, isn't he? I can't read CH's mind, but I'll be surprised if Ulloa or Locadia are playing at 3pm next Saturday, so it'll be just Stephens and either Knockaert or March of those on duty against Coventry. So in fact that team is largely a reserve side, albeit one made up of very good and, in some cases, decorated players.

On the subject of the decline of the FA Cup, the culprit is surely the Premier League for paying its members such vast amounts of money that being in it or getting into it matters more than anything.

 

[Stat Brother]

But surely Mike Calvin's point is that very few of these players will start against Swansea, and he's right, isn't he? I can't read CH's mind, but I'll be surprised if Ulloa or Locadia are playing at 3pm next Saturday, so it'll be just Stephens and either Knockaert or March of those on duty against Coventry. So in fact that team is largely a reserve side, albeit one made up of very good and, in some cases, decorated players.

It wasn't a reserve side it was a squad side.

The implication of the term reserve side is, to me at least, a team of kids, cripples and crocks.

Not one player that started yesterday would have anybody raising an eyebrow if they started on Saturday.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

What was he going to write if we had put out the full first team and shoved it right down Coventry's throat 7 - 0. Where is the potential romance in that? At least we gave Coventry a chance to giant-kill by making changes.

Anyway, after a few injuries or losses of form that side might not be too far off the first team later this season.

Lazy cliched journalism.