[Devongone]

Were it left to me, quite a lot of our players would get some experience on Monday night in Manchester.
Goal - Obviously Chapman.
RB - perm from Humphreys / Talbot / Graham, whoever needs the game most.
Centre backs - Raglan Captain, can Wood play, if so, he should.
Left back - Jones, is he available now or do I go Talbot or the Hump
Midfield is easy - Herd, Banks, O'Neil
Up front - Ariyibi, Simons, Dieseruwe
Formation? A flexible 4-3-2-1.

Why? BT, the need to blood players as starters, and giving as many of the usual starters enough relaxation so they've no excuse for losing at home to Oldham. And we might even still be good enough to win. But it's quite a big might.

[spireitematt]

Were it left to me, quite a lot of our players would get some experience on Monday night in Manchester.
Goal - Obviously Chapman.
RB - perm from Humphreys / Talbot / Graham, whoever needs the game most.
Centre backs - Raglan Captain, can Wood play, if so, he should.
Left back - Jones, is he available now or do I go Talbot or the Hump
Midfield is easy - Herd, Banks, O'Neil
Up front - Ariyibi, Simons, Dieseruwe
Formation? A flexible 4-3-2-1.

Why? BT, the need to blood players as starters, and giving as many of the usual starters enough relaxation so they've no excuse for losing at home to Oldham. And we might even still be good enough to win. But it's quite a big might.

Trust me if we sent out that team we would get beat by FC United they are no pushovers.

Lee
Jones
Raglan
Hird
Beesley
Ariyibi
Banks
Herd
O'Shea
Armand
Harrison

Possibly swap Harrison for Novak or Ebanks-Blake

Would be my selection playing in a 4-4-2

[Dancingwilldoit]

Matt,
We all know best but why would you play Beesley who hasnt featured at all this season, Banks who has done sweet FA this season and Harrison who I thought was injured with Armand who must feel not wanted and probably wouldn't turn up?
We have to play a full strength team and get into the next round. No pissing about and getting egg on our faces like Arsenal v Sheff Weds.

[spireitematt]

Matt,
We all know best but why would you play Beesley who hasnt featured at all this season, Banks who has done sweet FA this season and Harrison who I thought was injured with Armand who must feel not wanted and probably wouldn't turn up?
We have to play a full strength team and get into the next round. No pissing about and getting egg on our faces like Arsenal v Sheff Weds.

Beesley has been impressing in the reserves. Banks used to play for FC so him and Raglan will know how most of the players will play. Armand can cause trouble for defenders and can play well with the right player upfront. Even if we played all our best eleven players there is still a chance we could get knocked out. Arsenal played a lot of there first teamers against Wednesday but they didn't turn up and Wednesday were the better team and ripped them apart. Arsenal had gone into the game thinking it would be a walkover and easy but no game is easy and you shouldn't go into a game beforehand thinking its won.

[Devongone]

Matt, I think my team's far better than yours, and I'm not even particularly trying to win. (You want to put in O'Shea against a lower league team, where he'll need to battle? If only we could play Dean Morgan and Mark Randall alongside him we'd only get the ball from kick offs and free kicks.)

I just want to avoid a fine and simultaneously help the development of our fringe players (Herd has hardly any game time from a longish career, O'Neil needs some first team football, Banks has to play sometime, we may need him to rediscover himself) AND someone has to show our idiot FA and their apparent friend leading them down the road to destruction, BT, that the Cup is a fans' competition. We can't do much, but we don't have to send all our best players to their cheap Monday night party.

I thought Harrison had died! As for Armand, the manager clearly thinks he has no future with us, so develop the players who have. Beesley if he's going well, you could give him a game, but the manager clearly isn't that impressed, or he'd have made the bench as Dancing says.

FC United are OK this season, but that's it. They aren't pushovers, but Boston beat 'em easy. Fylde are better, Solihull, Stockport, Nuneaton too; on current form it's a longish list. If we lost easy with the team I've picked, we'd learn a lot about our strengths and weaknesses. They are all either regulars or bench players, none are seeming discards. They ought to win and do have everything to play for.

Normally I'd be with Dancing. I'd respect the Cup and our opponents and pick our strongest available to win the game, but this one has BT's frozen fingerprints all over it , not to mention our idiot FA's palsied attempts at commercialism. Everything FC United stands for will be denied by this Monday night fixture. I won't mind if they go through and get themselves a proper Cup game. They are worth it.

[spireitematt]

To be honest I'm not really bothered if we go out or get to the next round because I have a soft spot for FC United and I think its right there standing up for there principles and standing up to TV corporations. TV has helped football but has also ruined it and the TV companies dictate what they want and couldn't give a toss about fans. Look at Sky they seem uncomfortable to talk about lower leagues and they get a lot of there information wrong as well they go on about the Premier League as if its the be all and end all of football and that nothing else matters.

[Devongone]

I agree Matt.

Personally, I'd send our team round the ground before the game, waving to and applauding all FC United's fans and I'd ask their announcer to mention that Chesterfield wanted to congratulate the club on attempting to uphold what football should be about.

Then I'd try and beat them. But if they went through and got a home draw for a Saturday afternoon in Round Two I'd be bloody delighted for them.

[spireitematt]

Why couldn't BT just show the game live on the Saturday at 3pm? It's a big game in FC United's history and could be an upset and having it on a Monday night means that youngsters won't be able to go because they've got school the next day and also a lot of people won't be able to make the game because Monday is a working day and they might not be able to make the kick off in time. Where as having the game played on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon at a reasonable team means it would be suitable for everyone to see it.

Monday football never used to exist its just a invention from Sky its just an entertainment show to them they don't care about the fans who actually go to games there more worried about there viewing figures and selling satellite dishes and set top boxes and the way they go on about the Premier League its like football didn't exist before 1992 and that they invented it and you've got youngsters now who are growing up and a lot don't know that there is football outside the Premier League. I actually believe Sky created the armchair fan they buy the set top box, they buy the shirts but they never ever go to a game, you've got fans down South who are so called support Manchester United and probably City fans now and they've never set foot in the City never mind the stadium.

[St Charles Owl]

My understanding is that the FA, PL and FL do not allow any live TV games in the 3pm Saturday slot due to the potential effect it will have on attendances. Of course I doubt this game would effect other games attendances, but they have consistently upheld this rule in all their TV negotiations so far. Ironically over here I can watch any of the 3pm PL games live on tv, so on a normal Saturday I get to see 3 live PL games before 11am!!!!!

[Devongone]

I feel very angry for us and FC United over a Monday night FA Cup game, Don't know how I feel about Salford and Notts County on Friday, except that it eats away what makes the FA Cup exciting - and that is about all the surviving teams coming together at the same time. It gets even worse when the so-called attractive clubs come into the competition (and select most of their reserve players anyway) and the matches are spread out at different times on different days, until you reach the Quarter Finals when only one of the games will be a Saturday 3pm kick off.

By aiming the cup at a TV audience our FA thinks it is widening the audience, but because they've allowed it to become just another television product, when the competition reaches its later stages it is hard to distinguish from the cup competitions of other countries which have never achieved the pseudo-iconic status of our FA Cup. It is becoming a second-rate competition. There's no golden egg to put in the cup and Mother Golden Goose is looking increasingly like Greg Dyke in seedy drag.