[Devongone]

I used to love Cup Competitions but I've grown to dislike them ever since it was thought right to disrespect the opposition and play half your side or none ........ because supporters don't matter, the result doesn't much matter because you aren't realistically aiming to win the cup, you have other aims you selfishly judge more important. If any of that has ANYTHING to do with the notion of sport and what it does for the human race I'll eat my hat. It illustrates every base instinct. What sort of coup would it be for Chesterfield to beat WBA U-21s? What would be the reaction if we did what we disgracefully did in the FA Trophy against Coalville and deliberately selected a side to lose anyway. We've got another game a few days later, why not preserve our players and collect the money we'd get 0-1 or 0-6? Because it would cheating everyone concerned, even ourselves!

Go out with the best team available, do your best, smile if you win, smile and shake hands if you lose. And if your name's Arteta, shut the FFF up, stop whining and tantruming or you'll be grounded for a month with only old recordings of Alan Shearer to listen to!

Saturday January 7:
Preston 1-0 Town (12:30)
Town scorers:
PNE scorers: Ched Evans obviously

Forest Green Rovers 1-0 Birmingham City (12:30)
Blackpool 1-0 Nottingham Forest
Boreham Wood 1-0 Accrington Stanley
AFC Bournemouth 0-3 Burnley
Chesterfield 0-2 West Bromwich Albion
Ipswich Town 0-2 Rotherham United
Middlesbrough 2-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Shrewsbury Town 2-3 Sunderland
Coventry City 0-3 Wrexham (17:30) (Wrexham have more to lose by playing a full-strength team than Coventry ....... just a thought)
Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 Newcastle United (18:00)
Liverpool 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (20:00)

Sunday January 8:
Cardiff City 1-3 Leeds United (14:00)
Hartlepool United 1-2 Stoke City (14:00)
Stockport County 3-0 Walsall (14:00)
Manchester City 3-2 Chelsea (16:30)