FA Cup sponsored by fizzy brew Quarter Final
Manchester City v Barnsley
Saturday 9th March 2013
17:30pm kick off live on ESPN
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Prize Money: £360,000[/center]
Two years ago after we beat Aston Villa on a Wednesday night in the 5th round of the FA Cup we sat back and watched as we drew Everton or Reading at home in the Quarter finals of the FA Cup. Naturally there was trepidation as we assumed Everton, at home against Reading, would win comfortably and City would succumb to yet more FA Cup quarter final heartache at home at the hands of Tim Cahill in front of the South Stand…again. Our league form was indifferent, questions were being asked of Mancini, rumours of a lack of team spirit persisted, and a trip to Wembley seemed unlikely.
Then suddenly it all changed, Reading defeated Everton at Goodison and the mood was lifted. The third tier of the East Stand was hastily re-opened and tickets sold to people in the expectation of the big occasion and the prospect of returning to Wembley for the first time since 1999. The game was played on a warm Sunday evening in front of a huge crowd with a party like atmosphere and Micah scored the winning goal in a game that was startling in its straight forwardness. Next came Yaya Toure embarrassing Nemanja Vidic at Wembley, the Vermin taking defeat as gracefully as they did this week and the momentum, now with us, rolling us onto FA Cup victory and a third place finish on goal difference.
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[/center]This year the situation is comparable as we’ve been afforded an extremely winnable home tie, the league form is good but not spectacular and the ever increasing injury list seems to have checked much of the momentum from the excellent win against Chelsea. The game is a sell out and the 5:30 kick off gives the game a real sense of occasion with the knowledge that the potential to face a Championship side at Wembley awaits us. The hope from the neutrals will be that we and United will be kept apart until the final but I imagine the winners of Chelsea or United (ball no.3) will face the winners of Millwall or Blackburn (warm ball no.4) whilst we will face Everton (ball no.1). Personally I hope we face Blackburn in the Semi Finals and go onto defeat Wigan in the final but if we are going to face United it may as well be in the semi-final.
[center]The other Quarter Finals:
SAT 12:45 - Everton v Wigan Athletic - ITV
SUN 14:00 - Millwall v Blackburn - ESPN
SUN 16:30 - Manchester United v Chelsea - ITV[/center]
[center]Barnsley
[/center]When I think of Barnsley I always think of one of the first Saturday games I went to when I was a child and the big news of the day in 1996 was that Jeff Whitley was to make his debut. We lost 1-2 and Nigel Clough scored for us. The team that day was:
Line up: Dibble, Foster (Ingram), Symons, Frontzeck (Phillips), Clough, Summerbeee, Jeff Whitley, Kinkladze, Lomas, Dickov (Creaney), Rösler
Having sacked Keith Hill in December and replacing him with former City midfielder Gary Flitcroft’s older brother David, currently find themselves 21st in the league as they attempt to reach the FA Cup Semi Final since…err…2008. Away from home in the league they have won 5, drawn 2 and lost 9 this season scoring 23 and conceding 31 goals in the process. Despite losing 3-2 at home to Bolton on Saturday after battling back from 2 nil down and losing 5-3 at Bristol City on the 23rd February Barnlsey have 5 of their previous 6 games prior with wins against Millwall, Leeds, Blackpool, Middlesbrough and Wolves.
In the FA Cup they have yet to face Premier League opposition having beaten Burnley 1-0 at home in the 3rd round, won 1-0 at high flying Hull in the 4th round and surprisingly won 3-1 away at MK Dons in the 5th round.
[center]The team[/center]
The winter transfer window (as wiki calls it) was unkind to Barnsley fans as they sold top scorer and former City youth graduate Craig Davies to Bolton for £300,000, young starlet John Stones joined Everton for £3 million and worst of all MIDO was allowed to leave the club on a free transfer. However they were replaced with a couple of familiar faces to City fans (if you went to that Wigan game at the JJB when he was voted man of the match) with ex-Wigan player Jason Scotland joining on-loan from Ipswich and the return to the Etihad of ball thrower RORY DELAP!
Barnsley usually play in a 4-4-2 system but have also played 4-1-3-2 (which is actually also 4-4-2 but never mind), have occasionally played with a 4-3-3 but have rarely played with one up front. Not being in the knowledge of injuries, cup-tied, etc the team should/could look like this:
In goal we are likely to see Luke Steele who famously joined Barnsley on an emergency loan for an FA Cup 5th round tie against Liverpool at Anfield before putting a man of the match performance in and guiding his side to Wembley.
At the back former Southampton graduate Martin Cranie is likely to partner Warrington born Stephen Foster. Ex-Rochdale man Tom Kennedy could also be contention. At right back is likely to be ex-Rochdale man Scott Wiseman with journey man Scott Golbourne on the right.
In the centre of midfield it is likely to be ex-Rochdale man David Perkins partnered with former Chelsea youth graduate who played against City in the FA Youth Cup final at the Etihad Jacob Mellis or United-loanee Ryan Tunnicliffe (assuming not cup tied).
On the left hand side of midfield it is likely to be former Wigan trainee Tomasz Cywka who is jointed top goalscorer (not Davies has left) with four league goals whilst I’m sure it will be a big return for former youth team player Kelvin Etuhu.
Up front it is likely to be ex-Rochdale player Chris Dagnell who also has 4 league goals and 3 FA Cup goals partnered with either Sheffield Wednesday loanee Chris O’Grady, Jason Scotland or the ‘experienced’ Marlon Harewood.
[center]Manchester City[/center]
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This has nothing to do with the game but what a magnificent kit[/center]
The Champions of England apparently have a massive squad but for some reason a squad as massive as ours has only been able to field 16 outfield players for training this week as Aguero (knee injury), Rodwell (hamstring), Maicon (knee), Kompany (calf) and Richards (knee) are all out injured. In addition Mancini’s refusal to play Scott Sinclair and blame placed directly on Nasri’s shoulders and leaving him on the bench reduces our options further. This shouldn’t for one minute mean that we shouldn’t win the game comfortably but what it does mean is that both supporters and the players should be very aware that we will need to play to our best to win the game.
In goal the question will be whether Pantillimon will continue in goal or if Mancini feels that Hart should play as we get closer to the final. I imagine Kolo will continue his fine form and partner Nasti at centre half leaving Joleon on the bench (unless Harewood or Scotland plays?), Zabba will captain the side but Mancini may just choose Kolarov ahead of Clichy meaning that if Etuhu does start on the right he’s in for a good old scrap (and not just because Kelvin has been convicted of assault).
In midfield there is not much to choose from so I imagine it would be made up of 3 from Milner, Yaya, Barry and/or The Screener Garcia. He may not want to rush Barry back into the starting 11 as Garcia has been showing signs of life in the last couple of weeks.
Up front Silva will play with Tevez and Mancini may make the decision to start with 2 up front and play Dzeko or pick an extra midfielder and have Toure play further forward. If I was picking the side I would be tempted to play two up front and push Yaya up with them and since we play without any width anyway have a midfield three of Barry, Milner and Garcia.
PREDICTION
3-0 - If we keep a clean sheet and score I'll be pleased.
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