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[Albion] FA Cup.. the Sunday Times..





Not Andy Naylor

Well-known member
Dec 12, 2007
8,787
Seven Dials
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.

This all comes down to what people understand by the term 'reserve side', then. I'm not sure what sort of teams field 'cripples and crocks'. Apart from the one I play in with Jack Straw on Sunday mornings, of course.
 




Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 11, 2003
73,369
West west west Sussex
This all comes down to what people understand by the term 'reserve side', then. I'm not sure what sort of teams field 'cripples and crocks'. Apart from the one I play in with Jack Straw on Sunday mornings, of course.
Never let the truth get in the way of some top quality alliteration.
 


Sussexscots

Fed up with trains. Sick of the rain.
Well I enjoyed the match. I thought it a measure of how far we have travelled that we could field a side with two new forwards, our second choice centre backs and goalkeeper and still comfortably, professionally and without fuss progress against lower league opposition.

I think it speaks volumes about the standards of our set up and that'll do for me.
 




Farehamseagull

Solly March Fan Club
Nov 22, 2007
13,769
Sarisbury Green, Southampton
I still don’t know what people are being precious and moaning about? What has he said that is actually wrong? It seems an entirely accurate piece to me.

Other than the excitment (for Brighton fans only) of Locadia’s debut goal and Ulloa’s comeback goal, it was a non event.
 


Cheshire Cat

The most curious thing..
The laziest cliche of them all.
He just couldn't be bothered to think anything original or different - just followed the herd approach of the "decline and fall of the FA Cup blah blah". Journalists seem to love negative spinning - always creating a crisis out of a drama.
 


Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
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Jul 23, 2003
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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.

I genuinely don't know about the two strikers. I can only see Gross coming back in and the 4-1-1 formation happening, but after yesterday it's a 3 way tie for the final "1". Ulloa is three years younger than Murray and looked back to full on form yesterday. Locadia surprised me. I had him down as a slight upgrade on Baldock with a price tag dictated by this season's market but he's an absolute unit and neither Murray nor Hemed would have reacted quickly enough to score our first yesterday. As much as Glenn is in a purple patch I've currently got him down as third choice. I don't see the point of the signings otherwise. Bloom's not going to pay 14 million to shut NSC up.

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.

Well yes, the Premier League and satellite telly. The FA Cup was special when it was the only live game all season but so were all out pitched battles, scarves on wrists and players with tashes who weren't being ironic or raising money for Movember. Nevertheless the FA could have insisted on the primacy of it's flagship competition but no, just like the England team it doesn't give a shit about the FA Cup so long as the Premier League keeps on bringing in the pounds, dollars, yen and bhat.
 




trueblue

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
10,350
Hove
But surely Mike Calvin's point is that very few of these players will start against Swansea, and he's right, isn't he?

That doesn’t appear to be his point at all. His point, for which he’s using that argument as evidence, is that nobody cares about the FA Cup - which I don’t think is true in Brighton’s case. Yes, technically it could be called a ‘reserve side’, but he’s ignoring the fact that actually any one of those players WOULD be of a standard to start against Swansea if required. It could just as accurately be called a ‘strong’ side. One more than good enough to beat a team from the lower divisions comfortably - which might be the real reason the match wasn’t thrilling enough for him. I didn’t get the impression anybody wanted to toss off the chance of an FA Cup quarter-final because we play Swansea a full week away. It certainly wasn’t ‘a chore’.

For the Premier League clubs, it’s a squad game. That no longer in itself devalues the competition given the depth of today’s top flight squads. Sadly the FA Cup’s fighting a losing battle when it’s portrayed by such cliched tripe in cases where it plainly doesn’t apply.
 
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Not Andy Naylor

Well-known member
Dec 12, 2007
8,787
Seven Dials
I genuinely don't know about the two strikers. I can only see Gross coming back in and the 4-1-1 formation happening, but after yesterday it's a 3 way tie for the final "1". Ulloa is three years younger than Murray and looked back to full on form yesterday. Locadia surprised me. I had him down as a slight upgrade on Baldock with a price tag dictated by this season's market but he's an absolute unit and neither Murray nor Hemed would have reacted quickly enough to score our first yesterday. As much as Glenn is in a purple patch I've currently got him down as third choice. I don't see the point of the signings otherwise. Bloom's not going to pay 14 million to shut NSC up.



Well yes, the Premier League and satellite telly. The FA Cup was special when it was the only live game all season but so were all out pitched battles, scarves on wrists and players with tashes who weren't being ironic or raising money for Movember. Nevertheless the FA could have insisted on the primacy of it's flagship competition but no, just like the England team it doesn't give a shit about the FA Cup so long as the Premier League keeps on bringing in the pounds, dollars, yen and bhat.

I still think CH’s innate conservatism will mean that Murray starts against Swansea. Gross will certainly be back, I agree. One possibility would be to play Gross on the right and Locadia as a number 10, but that feels a bit radical ...
 


Farehamseagull

Solly March Fan Club
Nov 22, 2007
13,769
Sarisbury Green, Southampton
I still think CH’s innate conservatism will mean that Murray starts against Swansea. Gross will certainly be back, I agree. One possibility would be to play Gross on the right and Locadia as a number 10, but that feels a bit radical ...

I’ve been thinking that for a bit. Didn’t Gross usually play wide for Ingolstadt where he was very successful so maybe not totally radical?
 




Stato

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2011
6,525
1990 v Notts Forest Mark Hughes puts in a cross for sub Mark Robins to score the winner in FA Cup third round. Goal is rumoured to have saved Ferguson from the sack.
Ferguson went on to build a dynasty that dominated the post Sky era.
Nearly three decades on Robins' Coventry side's FA Cup win gets Hughes the sack from Stoke.
Coventry go to Brighton a couple of rounds later.
Brighton have their own FA Cup scars from Man Utd 1983 final. Contrasting fortunes of two clubs following that day: One to the brink and one becoming the epitome of Sky era football.
Impact of Sky money on the FA Cup as a competition.
Brighton already relegated when we played that final. This may not have been seen as the disaster it would be today. Hughton's team choice suggests where priority now lies for Premier League sides.
Coventry were more successful in their final. Beat Spurs in 1987. Chris Hughton was on the losing side that day.
Brighton didn't win the cup, but eventually won the lottery in terms of ownership: Local fan billionaire who built in the bricks and mortar that guarantee a club's future whichever division they are in.
Contrast with Coventry's stadium problems. Both clubs were forced to moved away from home, but for differing reasons.
Turn out of 4,000 from Coventry showing that they have the fight that the Brighton fans had, but need owners they can work with to move forward.
Routine win from a professional performance from Brighton sends Coventry back to battles in League 2 and Brighton (mention of weird draw time in connection with lowered status of competiton) on to, guess where? Old Trafford.

Writes itself. No need to even mention Connor Goldson's heart op, Jordan Maguire Drew assisting on debut at Stoke, but ineligible because of the draw against his parent club, or Johnson Clarke-Harris's return on loan to the club he began his career with, and his battling performance showing sort of grit Coventry will need to follow the road back that Brighton took.

The FA Cup is of value partly because it reminds all of football that all of the stories are linked. All of the stories of massive importance to those closely involved. It's devaluation is reflective of the post Premier League attitude that only the stories at the top end are of importance. The FA Cup is the opportunity to speak of the lesser known stories and journalists that fail to take this opportunity are letting down the competition more than any pragmatic manager's team selection.
 


OzMike

Well-known member
Oct 2, 2006
12,891
Perth Australia
Don't see a problem with what he said and probably 98% of all football club supporters would agree with it as well.
He tries to sound disparaging, but it actually comes across as a well run club planning ahead.
He states that the play was all one sided in our favour, can't see what the problem is.
If we had lost or won by hanging on to a 1 goal lead he might have a case, but neither of those happened so a non story really.
 


Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
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Jul 23, 2003
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Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
I’ve been thinking that for a bit. Didn’t Gross usually play wide for Ingolstadt where he was very successful so maybe not totally radical?

Not sure Gross has the pace to play out wide though he drifts there anyway and is an excellent crosser. It would be a bit like when Skalak played last season. Another thought, though, is Locadia wide right, given he played wide in a front 3 for PSV at times. Anyway, it's a nice problem to have.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 




cheshunt seagull

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
2,486
I think it is pretty lazy, poorly-researched, stuff. Probably one of 2 versions (the other being about the romance of the cup) that he bashed out on Friday and planned to top and tail before 5pm (5.15 as it turned out which probably really pissed him off ) on Saturday afternoon. Agree about the FA messing about with the format and devaluing the competition but this was a team full of top level players holding, or competing for, first team places; hardly kids and stiffs.
 


jimhigham

Je Suis Rhino
Apr 25, 2009
7,699
Woking
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.

Ugh! Now you've gone and made me consider the condition of Calvin's ringpiece. Squeaky suggests clean to me and I'm imagining more sweaty and matted?
 


Mo Gosfield

Well-known member
Aug 11, 2010
6,276
The FA Cup is of value partly because it reminds all of football that all of the stories are linked. All of the stories of massive importance to those closely involved. It's devaluation is reflective of the post Premier League attitude that only the stories at the top end are of importance. The FA Cup is the opportunity to speak of the lesser known stories and journalists that fail to take this opportunity are letting down the competition more than any pragmatic manager's team selection.[/QUOTE]

The FAC has got gradually more marginalised as each season goes by. The wall to wall coverage of the ' Big Six ' every minute of every day and the emphasis placed on the top area of the PL, squeezes the rest of football into a few lines buried, almost unseen, two or three pages in from the back pages. The FAC symbolises the whole essence of football. Smaller clubs entering the competition at the earliest qualifying stages in July and August, battling through a number of rounds, before they can even dream of playing a league club.
Watching the quarter-final draw, I grimaced as the studio pundits purred in delight as the remaining Big Four left in, were all kept apart ( funny that ) and likely to all make the semi's ( just as last year !! ) No romance in the draw. Just pure plain predictability and sadly, that is what the media and armchair fan wants. The biggest clubs in the semi's and the final.
 


grubbyhands

Well-known member
Dec 8, 2011
2,283
Godalming
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.

Exactly this, what a weapons grade REKNAW. Very lazy,un-researched journalism and probably makes a very good living from it to boot.
 




Hamilton

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Jul 7, 2003
12,390
Brighton





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