FA Cup 2017/18 - California Dreaming

[Artificial Hipster]

In hindsight feels like Henderson was a missed opportunity for City. He was from Bury St Edmunds, an academy product. But the season he broke into the team there (2003-04) we went and won the division. Then Worthington signed Mattias Jonson to play on the wing in the Premier League and Henderson lost his place in the side. That's quite a harsh message to send to a young player who's been with the club since he was a kid: thanks for helping us get up, but now we want a real player, sonny.

Then we got relegated straight away, and he got his place back. But I bet that Premier League season grated like hell.

His goal against Millwall lifted him to 4th in the list of all-time Rochdale goal scorers. If he wasn't the world's worst penalty taker he might be even higher.

[Gangster Octopus]

I'm an old Dad and it was the birth of my eldest coinciding with my folks moving away from Rochdale that led to me not renewing my season ticket. Momentum did the rest

Those bloody lefties...

[Artificial Hipster]

The week in pitches. Most of what follows is true.

Sunday - Tuesday. 100,000 holes drilled and filled in Rochdale, Lancashire to ensure the game against Millwall goes ahead. To his credit Neil Harris doesn't blame the pitch for his team's defeat, instead rightly slamming the idiots who thought it would be clever to charge onto the pitch and goad the Millwall fans to deflect from his curious team selections on the night.

Wednesday. The pitch is the talk of the footballing world. Talksport run a phone-in asking, "Rochdale - was that pitch really playable?"

Thursday. Mauricio Pochettino sticks his metaphorically appropriate oar in. Mistaking an inanimate object for a body of vacillating old dodderers he declares, “I think the FA Cup need to take a look at the Rochdale pitch and decide if it is good for the competition." Meanwhile the Rt Hon David Lammy MP asks Theresa May to intervene during a heated debate on the matter in parliament. The response from Rochdale's chairman is suitably bullish, calling Pochettino's intervention "ill-advised and unhelpful" and declaring him to be taking from a position of "complete ignorance."

Friday. The club tweets that today's game against Fleetwood will definitely go ahead with no pitch inspection planned. The pitch is uncovered.

Saturday. 10.45am. Following a pitch inspection the game is called off.

You couldn't make it up. Work is starting tonight on laying a new pitch though and it will "definitely" be ready for next Sunday. It might be worth mentioning in passing that exactly the same thing happened a year ago. The new pitch was a shocker from the off.

[Mr Beast]

The pitch didn't look great by modern standards. Is it as good as Spurs play on? Obviously not. Is it playable for professional football and no worse than many surfaces Pochettino will have played on during his career? Of course it is, shut the fuck up and get on with it.

[Kevin S]

Or as the weekly howl put it, how about the Premier League teams share more of the TV money with the lower divisions so they can buy top grade pitches then?

[Patrick Thistle]

Can't see Rochdale or Wigan progressing live on telly. So Sheffield Wednesday are the only viable potential non-Premier League team in the last 8, but have to do it the hard way. The 3 remaining big sides avoided each other in the draw.

Predict either Chelsea v Man City or an all-Manchester final.

[Hot Orange]

Predict either Chelsea v Man City or an all-Manchester final.

Either of which would be first-time finals.

The 5th Round draw was about as generous to the bigger clubs as it could have been.

[Amor de Cosmos]

On a year over year basis Rochdale are arguably the most un-glamorous club in the football league. Spurs OTOH might be one of the most glamorous (with the least reason.) It could be a giant-killing for the ages (but likely not.)

[Patrick Thistle]

More predictions:

Chelsea to beat Spurs in the first semi.
Man City to beat Man Utd in the second.

[Artificial Hipster]

On a year over year basis Rochdale are arguably the most un-glamorous club in the football league. Spurs OTOH might be one of the most glamorous (with the least reason.) It could be a giant-killing for the ages (but likely not.)

I wouldn't disagree with that. That we slipped to the foot of the table mid-week only adds to the contrast between the clubs and sets up the story perfectly. Many would perhaps rather we were playing either of the Manchester clubs but for me Spurs bring a kind of glamour that the artificial incarnation of City, for all their class on the pitch, will never have and which Mourinho has temporarily bled from United.

Calvin Andrew is out for us but so I believe is Harry Kane. Spurs will replace Kane with a World Cup winner while we'll either give a debut to someone we've borrowed from Fulham or else start with a squad player with 2 career goals to his name. The new pitch is fit though so hopefully the only likelihood of serious injury will be if Dele Alli makes a late cameo with Spurs chasing an equaliser.

I'm excited.

[cantagalo]

Predict either Chelsea v Man City or an all-Manchester final.

Great. I can’t wait.

[Patrick Thistle]

Rochdale get to go to Wembley. Lovely for them and their fans. Hope you'll get to go, AH.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Yes congrats AH. A proper cup-tie that was. Underdog home team get tying goal it time added on. Scorer spends time after the final whistle hugging fans behind the goal. Player's daughter clutching her teddy runs on to the pitch to hold hands with Dad as he walks off the pitch. Lovely stuff.

[Ray de Galles]

I hate to be that guy but a midweek replay against Spurs in front of, at best, a half empty stadium is hardly the “dream trip to Wembley” people are making it out to be.

I’ve seen lots of exciting matches and big occasions there but it’s not in itself a great ground and is especially not a great club ground. Having travelled as an away supporter for a D3 team in the Cup this season it was OK but I’m sure a trip to White Hart Lane would have been far better and the Spurs support would certainly have been more vociferous.

It’s actually cheapened (figuratively and literally, tickets will be £10 or so) by overuse, seeing Shrewsbury at West Ham in the Cup earlier in the season at the Olympic Stadium was the same. The venues seem a shadow of what they would be for their proper use and it becomes a match being played in an over-sized neutral “facility”.

[ChrisJ]

I hate to be that guy but a midweek replay against Spurs in front of, at best, a half empty stadium is hardly the “dream trip to Wembley” people are making it out to be.

I’ve seen lots of exciting matches and big occasions there but it’s not in itself a great ground and is especially not a great club ground. Having travelled as an away supporter for a D3 team in the Cup this season it was OK but I’m sure a trip to White Hart Lane would have been far better and the Spurs support would certainly have been more vociferous.

It’s actually cheapened (figuratively and literally, tickets will be £10 or so) by overuse, seeing Shrewsbury at West Ham in the Cup earlier in the season at the Olympic Stadium was the same. The venues seem a shadow of what they would be for their proper use and it becomes a match being played in an over-sized neutral “facility”.

I agree. Wembley's just another club ground now. It's nice 'n'all, but not special. See also semi-finals. The point of going to Wembley was that it signified the chance of winning a pot, not a 5th round replay.

But I still hope Rochdale make some cash and have a good day - and even better, win. Quarter final at Liberty or Hillsborough is bigger.

[Ray de Galles]

I wonder how much of a windfall these games are for the visitors too. 35/40,000 tickets at £10 or less each minus the operating costs for a massive stadium (even with the upper tier closed it must be expensive) and then split 50/50 with Spurs.

There’s no sense around Wimbledon that the Third Round tie there was a significant payday, not that the cash should be deemed too important a part of a Cup tie.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I'd imagine that for a club that's used to 3,500-ish for home games, it'd represent a bit of a tidy sum.

[Ray de Galles]

Sure, but “better than your normal home gate” is not the same as the windfall usually associated with such games. I just wonder if a visiting team might not make significantly more from a tie like a sold out White Hart Lane, Anfield or (especially) Old Trafford - a few teams have earned more than their whole season’s usual budget from the latter, I seem to recall.

[Patrick Thistle]

There's a tendency for a lot of bigger clubs to not sell out for cup games and offer cheaper tickets anyway. Rochdale will make more from this than a normal away game. It's likely to be on TV again. For some players this is their chance to play at Wembley. And for fans it's something special and fun.

[Ray de Galles]

Well, I’m not saying it’s A Bad Thing but that it’s significance is wildly overstated - to the extent that the TV pundits and others were speculating that Rochdale would prefer the draw yesterday to a win because it would mean “a trip to Wembley”. I know the BBC feels it has to act as a PR arm of the FA but that’s absurd.

Interestingly with regard to the finance point, Keith Hill was on the radio this morning and said the TV money from the replay would be far more significant than their share of the gate. Of course, they already received a broadcast fee yesterday and could reasonably be expected to do so again had they won the tie without a replay.

[Snake Plissken]

All 4 quarter-finals are televised, aren't they?

[Jah Womble]

There’s no sense around Wimbledon that the Third Round tie there was a significant payday, not that the cash should be deemed too important a part of a Cup tie.

'Magic of the Cup' and all that to one side, I think it has to be considered so, doesn't it? Lower- and non-league clubs are entitled to see such a cash-input as hugely important: for most, the 'money tie' at the home of a PL giant represents the only opportunity they'll ever have for such a payday. (Thanks to gate receipts and TV revenue from their recent replay at Wembley, Newport cleaned up to the tune of around £1m. That's a massive deal for them.)

[Ray de Galles]

There's absolutely no way they'd earn £1m from the Wembley replay alone , it's actually £900,000 income for all aspects of the entire Cup run (they've had a few ties televised - though some only on BBC Wales, granted).

Of course the cash is important (but, as I said above, a Wembley Cup game hardly changed Wimbledon's season financially and they're run on a shoestring budget) but not more important than actually winning Cup ties, as some are attesting.

[N est à?]

At least Rochdale can be pleased that they kept themselves in the competition. It was fucked up the way the pundit industrial complex were talking about newport when they conceded that late equalizer, as if a draw and a replay had been their main aim all along.

[Patrick Thistle]

I can see a difference here between people who have been to Wembley to see their team play against Spurs saying it's not all that, and people who haven't had the chance to go to Wembley to see their team playing against Spurs saying 'Hey, that's cool for Rochdale'.