The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough,

KO 1730hrs Saturday 6th January 2024.

Live on the Beeb!

 

Introduction

Middlesbrough FC welcome Aston Villa, their players and staff and supporters to The Riverside Stadium for a real thriller!

Time to allow a distraction of the EFL campaign to be put aside for what many supporters throughout the land feel is the best football calendar date of the season the FA Cup round 3.

When announced the tie was a welcome break from all of the away games faced in this seasons EFL Cup Competition, Premier League  takes a trip to Teesside hoorah! and a match that many looked forward to!

Been a while since we last faced Villa at home in the FA Cup a home defeat way back in 2017 so could we get revenge for that loss this time round?

Reality check

Aston Villa could very well be tempted to allow as many of their fringe players to get a game against Boro but somehow I think they will field their strongest available team and put us to the sword straight away and then introduce some of their lesser known players.

For the Boro well unless something changes in the next day or two we already know the power of our team available to place Villa but the good news is that Sam Greenwood will not be cup tied in the FA Cup so will be available straight away (unless he is a new injury we are not aware of)

Lambs to the slaughter and if Villa are as good as a team they are showing this could well be a high scoring game for them!

Rumour has it

Whispers through the grape vine is that Hackney, ELL and Crooks could be available which is welcome and could give them some game time before and let us be honest the BIG game against Chelsea!

The view from Downsouth

I used to enjoy authoring MDT's as there was always a chance to go on a winning run sadly I do not feel this way with this game.

There second team should be more than a match for Boro because we are so depleted player availability wise that to even consider a shock would be folly, I expect Boro to do their best and maybe see a few players performing well but that probably is the best we can hope for.

This seasons FA Cup runneth is over.

Couple of questions

Would it be in the best interest to save some of our players for the Chelsea Game?

Will we have a stronger subs bench against Villa as we did against Coventry ?

Does anyone see any other result than a Villa win

Is the tie decided after 90 mins with a penalty shoot out?

Thanks for your indulgence I guess I will see you all again in a few weeks time lol! 

 

This could possibly be the only reply to this thread Alan 🙂 so I thought I would show you a bit of support.

 

 

Couple of questions

Would it be in the best interest to save some of our players for the Chelsea Game? Definitely would be.

Will we have a stronger subs bench against Villa as we did against Coventry ? Yes. Hopefully our subs bench against Coventry will all be starting this game.

Does anyone see any other result than a Villa win Nope

Is the tie decided after 90 mins with a penalty shoot out? Doubtful. Straight forward win in 90minutes for Villa unfortunately.

Thanks for your indulgence I guess I will see you all again in a few weeks time lol! 

Would it be in the best interest to save some of our players for the Chelsea Game?

Assuming we have some Players left then it's a yes from me!

Will we have a stronger subs bench against Villa as we did against Coventry ?

Depends on the Joiner I suppose and if he's used simple dowels or dovetail joints, don't suppose it really matters as there will only be one or two at most sat on it.

Does anyone see any other result than a Villa win

It might get fogged off or the Tees could flood, either way it's sobering to think that's who Pulis defended a 1-0 defeat to in the Play offs a few years back 😞

Is the tie decided after 90 mins with a penalty shoot out?

Think the Tie will be decided after 15 minutes or if the Referee declares a Technical Knock Out, whichever comes first.

We're gonna get hammered.

Think of the Brighton game but probably at least twice as bad.

4-0 to the boro

26 minutes ago, Rob said:

4-0 to the boro

I believe😘

It'll be like being back in the premier league for a week! Sadly I think the villains of the piece will have this one. We don't have the fit players to go on two cup runs, so we'll save the heroics for Chelsea. 3-0 Villa. 

 

Would it be in the best interest to save some of our players for the Chelsea Game? 

Yes. All of them. Play some of the kids who normally take the half time penalties.

 

Will we have a stronger subs bench against Villa as we did against Coventry ?

Hopefully with Hackney, crooks and the other un coming back. They should at least be on the bench. Maybe give them 20 mins to get a bit of match fitness back. 

 

Does anyone see any other result than a Villa win

No. 

 

Is the tie decided after 90 mins with a penalty shoot out?

Dunno

Drawn Third and Fourth round matches result in a replay - it's not until the 5th round that they're scrapped.

Would it be in the best interest to save some of our players for the Chelsea Game?

I think it would be in our best interests to rest some people because they need resting regardless of what's to come. But for what it's worth, I agree that I'd rather put our best foot forward against Chelsea.

Will we have a stronger subs bench against Villa as we did against Coventry?

Carrick seems to think so but I hope it's stronger by virtue of one or two youngsters in the first team too! Hopefully see more of McCabe or Kavanagh.

Does anyone see any other result than a Villa win?

Nah. I think they've naturally reached the peak of the table and started to have a bit of a wobble in performances after people have started discussing them as "what if" title candidates. No disrespect to them though for that, you've got to be in the picture to be mentioned as that to begin with and they have been superb and clinical to be up there, some huge results on the way there too. Assuming they put out a strong side, which seems safe to assume it would be the case given they have a full week of recovery either side of the game, they'll have more than enough to put our team to the sword.

The odds are against us and like most of us, I would like to see us beat Chelsea if I had to make a choice between the two, but despite their superior quality, they are occasionally a little inconsistent. They have drawn with Bournemouth, Wolves and Sheffield and collapsed against Man U and most of their really good wins have been at home. They are also in a great position for Champions League qualification and still in the Conference League, so will they be giving the FA Cup a high priority or fielding some of the fringe guys? They are a side that plays positive football and that helps as we tend to struggle against teams that sit in and catch us on the break. If we lose, we lose but we proved against Leicester that we can compete with decent teams in the right circumstances. As always, getting through the opening 15 minutes will go a distance to determining the outcome, but if the tenner is put on the right team, it might be closer than people think.

Villa will play a half weakened team I think and be more interested in winning the league. I’m expecting them to get to about 3-0 and just play at half pace tbh. Be interesting to see if we go all guns blazing though like we did vs spurs a couple years ago.

This is a waste of time and energy for us, basically.

Chelsea game matters infinitely more, as does keeping players fit and resting those who need it.

Could be a ridiculously one sided affair, which makes it slightly annoying that it's on actual TV.

8 hours ago, macapes said:

This is a waste of time and energy for us, basically.

Chelsea game matters infinitely more, as does keeping players fit and resting those who need it.

Could be a ridiculously one sided affair, which makes it slightly annoying that it's on actual TV.

Probably why the Beeb chose to air the game will be a good laugh for a Saturday early evening viewing akin to the last night at the paladium!

8 hours ago, macapes said:

This is a waste of time and energy for us, basically.

Chelsea game matters infinitely more, as does keeping players fit and resting those who need it.

Could be a ridiculously one sided affair, which makes it slightly annoying that it's on actual TV.

It’s a televised game, which I think will mean our players raise their game a bit more, we often do in these situations. I don’t think we’ll win, but I don’t think we’ll get hammered either. Our team picks itself, Villa will rest a few players, so who knows?

I hope there is a decent turn out and a good atmosphere, it seems an awful lot of supporters have given up on this one already, when realistically a one off match at home to a weakened side, compared to a 2 legged tie against a team who really want to get to the final is probably slightly more winnable. 

8 minutes ago, BillyWoofs_shinpad said:

It’s a televised game, which I think will mean our players raise their game a bit more, we often do in these situations. I don’t think we’ll win, but I don’t think we’ll get hammered either. Our team picks itself, Villa will rest a few players, so who knows?

I hope there is a decent turn out and a good atmosphere, it seems an awful lot of supporters have given up on this one already, when realistically a one off match at home to a weakened side, compared to a 2 legged tie against a team who really want to get to the final is probably slightly more winnable. 

I don't disagree that we stand a better chance of going through than we do beating Chelsea - but I don't think our squad really needs any extra games regardless, given how stretched and exhausted we appear.

If we fade out 2nd half like we did against Coventry it could get embarrassing.