Tamworth v Tottenham coming up. Tamworth's manager just been interviewed - works in College currently, going full time with Tamworth next month, presumably on the proceeds from this tie. He's had an hour and a half this week to prepare his team for the tie. The match "programme" was an A4 sheet of paper with the teams on. The Tamworth players had their names reproduced in full including middle names. The FA Cup is absolutely brilliant, nothing like it anywhere else in the world. Really annoys me when people try to devalue it - and more often than not it's the footballing authorities themselves.

Agreed. We did beat Arsenal away under Appleton didn't we when Kazim Richards scored but I wouldn't back a penny of someone else's money on us doing it now. If we get far enough we'll meet someone decent eventually, but let's leave it as long as possible.

We didn't win either of those ties against Liverpool though did we?

The ones we have actually brought in aren't very inspiring either.

Yep. Where's the next Dack/Szmodics?

Apart from being on 70k p.w. and (imo) useless Bamford is a colossal injury risk, made of glass. Fair point on Wallace IF he was being brought in on a one in one out basis to replace Sigurdsson for squad depth. As a main signing don't think he'd be the answer.

Keep thinking wistfully back to when we brought Steve Archibald in on loan when he was at Barcelona. In terms of impact and wow factor that's the sort of signing we could do with. Given our impoverished circumstances at the time it was so surreal and off the scale bat shit crazy that the equivalent now would be bringing in someone like Marcus Rashford on loan.

Quite possibly. Rings a bell.

Don't think so. He came in on loan, was a sensation, didn't get on with Jim Iley and went elsewhere as far as I can recall. The Board got flak about it and that probably did for Iley.

Either way that's the sort of signing we need to be targeting imo potential stars of the future or players on the way up or at their peak. Not ones on the way down unless they were truly exceptional to begin with.

Well past his best by then, still thought you could see his quality in comparison to the rest of the side though.

I thought Radford was quite good tbf. Agree on Bamford though.

Until we've seen him play , whether or not he would improve us is purely a matter of opinion. That seems to be a simple concept you are unable to get your head round so you revert to your usual being objectionable to other posters. I'd say that the benchmark for any signings this window has to be that they'd make enough of a difference to give us a real chance of going up via the play offs. I fail to see how Wallace would do that. That again is my opinion that no doubt you will disagree with.

In our case, we're one of the few who have never been so I'll take it. They can change it back after we've been!

It's not meaningless - it's his opinion, no more or less valuable than your own. FWIW if he was still good enough to make any sort of difference at this level I don't think one of our rivals for the play off places would be willing to send him here.

Can't see anything wrong with that tbf. You rattle through the short cases first so everyone isn't hanging around all day. It will all hinge on how long case 59 takes if that's a final hearing. If it settles on the Court steps on the morning, we might be away.

Don't really know anything about him but would it be unfair to say Hedges Mk 2 on the other side of the pitch?

Why on earth would you want that? Surely the aim is to get through!

Don't mention that, even in jest. Would truly be the stuff of nightmares. Rumour has it if you mention them together three times they materialise like Candyman.

Don't you have to pay for the crap he churns out on Patreon though? I think that was the point being made.

I still think Jeffrey Schlupp would be a pretty good signing. He'll probably have better offers though. Bamford I'd wager would be a horrifically expensive flop, and that's if he even stayed fit. I got mixed up at first between Jed Spence and Jed Wallace and couldn't understand why people were moaning about that! Now I understand. Would be extremely disappointed with that. BBD would not be without a slight element of risk but he's a lot better than what we've currently got. I'd certainly take him but as with Schlupp difficult to see him choosing here if Sheff Utd (where he did quite well) and Sunderland are after him. Overall, I think have to hope we have other exciting irons in the fire the media haven't caught up on yet.

I want an "easy" tie to give us the best chance of reaching the last 16! I agree that the last 16 is when it feels like the competition starts in earnest. And if you can reach the last 8 (as we have done several times under Venky's ownership but blown it) I find that almost too exciting for words as you're only 90 mins away from the new Wembley.

Semi final at Wembley it is then.

It would be a quick chance to put that right.

It seems to me people judge Leonard far more harshly because he is an academy graduate and just assume he wont be good enough. If we'd paid £5m for him I reckon a lot would be saying, "he's showing some encouraging signs he'll come good". Don't think anyone is really giving him any leeway either on the fact he's had a fairly serious injury and an extremely long time out. Something Eustace alluded to today in his post match interview when he said Harry was "getting fitter all the time" which I must admit is something I hadn't really taken into account either.