Eastleigh away - FA Cup round two

[Clyde1998]

Away at Eastleigh!

[Clyde1998]

Full draw:

• Maidstone United [6] v Barrow [4]
• Wycombe Wanderers [3] v Morecambe [4]
• Notts County [4] v Shrewsbury Town [3]
• Chesterfield [5] v Leyton Orient [3]
• Aldershot Town [5] v Stockport County [4]
• Alfreton Town [6] v Walsall [4]
• Blackpool [3] v Scarborough Athletic [6] or Forest Green Rovers [4]
• Cambridge United [3] v Kidderminster Harriers [5] or Fleetwood Town [3]
• Bolton Wanderers [3] v Harrogate Town [4]
• Wrexham [4] v Yeovil Town [6]
• Crewe Alexandra [4] or Derby County [3] v Bristol Rovers [3]
• Peterborough United [3] or Salford City [4] v Doncaster Rovers [4] or Accrington Stanley [4]
• Eastleigh [5] v Reading [3]
• Gillingham [4] v Charlton Athletic [3] or Cray Valley Paper Mills [8]
• Stevenage [3] v Port Vale [3] or Burton Albion [3]
• Newport County [4] v Barnet [5]
• Oxford United [3] v Slough Town [6] or Grimsby Town [4]
• Chester [6] or York City [5] v Wigan Athletic [3]
• Sutton United [4] v Barnsley [3] or Horsham [7]
• AFC Wimbledon [4] v Ramsgate [8]

[WestYorksRoyal]

Tricky. Sort of game where I could see them trying to bully us to make up for the gulf in talent. And they may well succeed

[Clyde1998]

Tricky. Sort of game where I could see them trying to bully us to make up for the gulf in talent. And they may well succeed

Hope we put a similar side out for this one as we did yesterday; play a weaker side and we could have a Kidderminster redux on our hands.

[Royals and Racers]

Every chance it will be picked for TV.

[Clyde1998]

Every chance it will be picked for TV.

That would be around £75k extra for us.

[RG30]

Southampton at home to Cardiff on the Saturday which means it probably won't be that day for police reasons.

[Sutekh]

Tricky. Sort of game where I could see them trying to bully us to make up for the gulf in talent. And they may well succeed

But then the gulf in talent is the other way when you add in the Selles factor.

[Sutekh]

Southampton at home to Cardiff on the Saturday which means it probably won't be that day for police reasons.

Yes, a distinct possibility, there's only about 4.5 miles between the two grounds but then the game may get put on the telly anyway given how utterly pants Reading are away. Eastleigh are currently 11th in the NL.

[Clyde1998]

Southampton at home to Cardiff on the Saturday which means it probably won't be that day for police reasons.

Yes, a distinct possibility, there's only about 4.5 miles between the two grounds but then the game may get put on the telly anyway given how utterly pants Reading are away. Eastleigh are currently 11th in the NL.

I believe there will be four matches on TV in the second round - so there's a one in five chance we'd be picked if they were doing it at random. A non-league side at home to a league side will heavily increase those odds (plus the Welsh language channel will probably have one of Wrexham or Newport on it in addition to those four).

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

That's a great draw IMHO. Most people have never heard of Eastleigh. It's not far, when you look at the teams in the draw who would be be better away.

[paultheroyal]

That's a great draw IMHO. Most people have never heard of Eastleigh. It's not far, when you look at the teams in the draw who would be be better away.

It is a great draw and most people would of heard of Eastleigh. Knocking around National League for years, moments away from getting into the Football League - and clearly signposted on the M3!!

Would be gobsmacked if its not a TV game - but would imagine it would be away from the Saturday slot.

[Brogue]

It’s Saturday at 3pm

[paultheroyal]

It’s Saturday at 3pm

That be standard, it won’t be at that time.

[Green]

Tricky. Sort of game where I could see them trying to bully us to make up for the gulf in talent. And they may well succeed

You know what they say WestYorks, there's no easy games at this level.

[Elm Park Kid]

It’s Saturday at 3pm

Is it CONFIRMED Brogue?

[Brogue]

It’s Saturday at 3pm

Is it CONFIRMED Brogue?

You misspelled confimred

[Snowflake Royal]

Our squad is pretty decent, if struggling against first team L1 sides, and Cup games are a break from the pressure. We've scored an absolute hat full in knockout football this season. Despite a bit of a hit and miss performance against MK. There's a pretty big gulf between L1 and NL. PLus we have a whole month between now and then in which we may even get some good news or a new manager.

I'm fairly confident we should do ok. And if we don't, it's a whole hell of a lot of meh in the face of the league and ownership issues.

[Jackson Corner]

Great draw should be on tv will get lots of local publicity given our superb away form. Gives us a chance to be humiliated on national tv.

[Clyde1998]

Our squad is pretty decent, if struggling against first team L1 sides, and Cup games are a break from the pressure. We've scored an absolute hat full in knockout football this season. Despite a bit of a hit and miss performance against MK. There's a pretty big gulf between L1 and NL. PLus we have a whole month between now and then in which we may even get some good news or a new manager.

I'm fairly confident we should do ok. And if we don't, it's a whole hell of a lot of meh in the face of the league and ownership issues.

Even against MK we could've scored six realistically - Azeez narrowly putting wide, Ballard's chip cleared off the line and Ballard not squaring for an Azeez tap in before missing the target himself.

Realistically, our 'second strongest side' is roughly of the same level as our strongest side - at least not a significant step back. If you look at the side that started yesterday, you wouldn't be surprised if any of those players started in the league (with the exceptions of Pereira and Rushesha if there aren't injuries; I don't think Pereira is much of a step down on Button - if a step down at all). Even of the bench, only Collins would be a surprise to appear in a league game. And that's with nine changes to the starting XI.

If we put out the same sort of side against Eastleigh, we should have better players on the pitch than they will. We should also have a stronger team than the one that lost at Kidderminster. The team that day was:

Rafael
Tetek (Araruna (Stickland)) - Holmes (Laurent) - Holzman - Bristow
Drinkwater (Rinomhota) - Osorio
Camara - Dele-Bashiru - Halilovic (Azeez)
Puscas

It didn't help that I think all the substitutions except Drinkwater for Rino was enforced due to injury. However, I believe five of the starting XI had played less than 630 minutes (7 full matches) of professional football up to that point, plus two of the subs. Tetek started the game out of position, whilst Laurent did too - both played RB (IIRC).

Of the older players, Drinkwater, Halilovic and Araruna don't appear to have played for anyone following that season (although Araruna is almost certainly because of injuries). Dele-Bashiru went back to Watford following his loan and has only featured in just over 1,000 (just under twelve full 90 mins) in the one and a half-years since.

Looking back, I can't believe how poor that side was we took to Kidderminster. Especially ending up with a defence of Laurent - Stickland - Holzman - Bristow.