[Archived] Rovers V Coventry Fa Cup (replay) Preview

[modes98]

Anyone who plays football at a decent level will tell you it has a negative effect missing a game, for a 'rest'

It's mental tiredness as well as physical tiredness. I would think the game against Man U took a lot of everyone mentally, given the effort they put in. Still they will be fresh and raring to go today. However I do agree that not playing harms your flow as a professional player but players are used to a week break so there's no issue.

[imy9]

I think what it boils to is this:

IF we win Hull City then Big Sam made the right call.

IF we lose/draw then quite clearly it was a blunder to play a weakened side against Coventry, lets wait and see.

[ABBEY]

have you splinters in your arse imy talk about sitting on the fence

[John]

Sir Bobby Robson has criticised managers' decisions to select weakened teams for cup competitions this week and has warned it could backfire. "But sorry, Sam, I cannot agree with your decision to put out a reserve team at Coventry City when a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals was at stake.

[imy9]

have you splinters in your arse imy talk about sitting on the fence

Sitting on the fence is fun

Hopefuly a 3-1 win to Rovers.

[thenodrog]

have you splinters in your arse imy talk about sitting on the fence

Dunno bout that Abbey but I'll bet he's probably got a smile on his face after todays result.

[imy9]

Dunno bout that Abbey but I'll bet he's probably got a smile on his face after todays result.

[Montfort]

I was very dissapointed with the result. My belief that we are going to get out of relegation trouble has started to waiver for the first time since Big Sam arrived. Need a win on Saturday - desperately.

WE DID !!!!!! feel better now and faith restored. Well done to Andrews. Very pleased for him.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

And yet we've seen many managers get sent down because of this. When is the last time a team dropped and you thought "if only they hadn't had that cup run, they might have stayed up"?

About the only example I can think of where a team did well because of a light workload is when Spurs finished 5th after having played the least number of matches possible for the season.

Middlesborough reached the cup final and got relegated the season they didn't turn up at Ewood. The cup run....and the rescheduled match against us.....lead to one hell of a fixture congestion at the end of the season.

[Mr. E]

So instead of facing tomorrow our most exciting game of the season, having a real buzz around the place, we are left with nothing but trying to imagine where we'll scrape the next win off in order to survive. Because we can't beat Coventry for the 2nd season in a row.

The players need it to be drilled in them to what extent they've let down the fans this season.

[Eddie]

I agree with American, it's very rare that you see a team really fall away because of cup success. If anything, cup success can often galvanize sides and lead to a turnaround. The benefit of being able to "focus on the league" is just a clever piece of spin that football fans continue to buy into.