Fantastic result!!!!!

Man City 0 Forest 3

YOUUUUU REEEDDDDDSSS!!!!!

Notts' the new Barnsley! How time has changed, Forest was once a giant too. In another ironic match, Barnsley was downed 3-0 by West Ham.

FA Cup fourth round draw: Liverpool v Everton; Manchester United v Tottenham; Hull or Newcastle v Millwall or Crewe; Sunderland v Blyth Spartans or Blackburn; Hartlepool v West Ham; Leyton Orient or Sheffield United v Charlton or Norwich; Cardiff v Arsenal; Portsmouth or Bristol City v Histon or Swansea; Chelsea or Southend v Ipswich; Cheltenham or Doncaster v Aston Villa; West Brom or Peterborough v QPR or Burnley; Torquay v Coventry; Kettering v Fulham; Watford v Leicester or Crystal Palace; Derby v Nottingham Forest; Birmingham or Wolves v Middlesbrough.

Ah that's the FA Cup for you. Teams from the lower divisions often relish playing Premiership sides because of the windfall of cash they get. You can also see that they see it as an opportunity to kick and shove pampered Premiership players about. Been awhile since Forest has been in the top flight and an even longer time since they won the last of their 2 European Cups

we've been lucky that moores took over the club and invested in some excellent players then, among them is nigel clough, son of brian, who was forest's manager at that time. the son fancies playing for us rather than his dad's club.

Well the son did not wanna play for Forest because of the way his dad's removal was handled.

BTW its 2 EC back to back... This year is the 20th Anniversary

Yoouuuuu REEDDDSSSS!!!!

LOL...All the Fa matches tonight, so far all draw...

I seriously think that the FA Cup is losing it's appeal as Premiership clubs are fielding more and more reserve players against lower opposition. Nothing wrong really since the mancs managed to trounce Derby even without a host of first team players. It just comes to show that there is a growing dispairity between Premiership sides and other English teams from the Championship and below. The money is much bigger in Europe and the Premiership which is why it's no surprise the FA Cup no longer has priority over success in Europe. You have also to consider that these days Premiership clubs are "whoring" themselves to the world, hence the growing importance of achieving success in Europe. The first sign of this was when Ferguson opted to skip the FA Cup to compete in the World Club Championships.

What? I don't get you, Duke.

To be fair, United was pressured by FA to join that tournament. This is to boost up the England profile for their failed bid to host the 2006 World Cup.

United did ask some assistance from the FA to help them contest in the FA cup like postponing the game (Can't do it due to the packed schelude) or flying the team that was supposed to meet United to Brazil (FA too cheapskate I guess).

Fact of the matter is the FA Cup will always be rated behind the league and European tournaments. Its definitely lost much of its appeal, and some clubs seem to be content to getting knocked out solely to concentrate on their other fronts. Some Pool fans for example didn't seem at all bothered that they lost out to Everton that day, and used the excuse that at least they'd be able to focus on their title charge with this "hindrance" out of the way. This tournament imo would mean alot more to clubs under the Premiership becoz its their only chance of playing a top side, and to reap the financial rewards obviously. Smaller clubs could run a whole year solely by a single gate receipt from a large stadium. Domestic cup competitions will always be second rate compared to continental competitions.

Before everyone goes on the defensive (which I see is already the case), I used Ferguson's example because it was the most high profile one. The point is that the FA Cup is fast losing it's prestige and this could be down to the influx of foreign players and managers.As for chosing which competitions to play in, Liverpool played in the World Club Championship and all the other tournaments back in 2006 for the record. I'm not sure if we were given an option but I the schedule was just as hectic.

Boxsystem: I'm suggesting that the reason the FA Cup is less 'glamorous' these days is because clubs are more interested in capturing the global audience, and because of this, European competitions are given top priority. Hence, big clubs tend to rest key players during the FA Cup which wasn't the case before.

Hevryn: You are right. To be honest the FA Cup exit doesn't really hurt as much as I thought it would. This doesn't mean that I wouldn't still like to be in it but to me the priority is the league and then the Champions League, not the FA Cup. Another reason is that I'm kinda accustomed to losing in domestic cup competitions, and there is always next year for me. In some sense, you could say I'm more patient. If I weren't I'd have committed suicide during the 90's. You may say that I'm trying to console myself, but this is the reality of the situation for me. Losing to Man Utd in the league for example, matters more than being dumped out of the FA Cup by Everton. Am I deluded to feel this way? Perhaps but I'm not going to lie.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: Feb 16 2009, 02:53 PM

2 significant changes to the format between the WCC2000 and WCC2005.

1) WCC2000 - All teams played in group stages 3 times and the top 2 will play one more for 3rd-4th placing and the finals
WCC2005 - Teams from Europe (Liverpool) only play up to 2 games, Semi and if win the Finals.

2) WCC2000 - Were held in Mid Jan when the FA Cup third round has started (this is when the Premiership teams start playing)
WCC2005 - We held in December before the FA Cup third round.

All my source is from Wikipedia so if they are wrong so am I.

Seriously though, does the addition of 2 - 3 games in an entire season really matter when you have a large squad? It may just be my opinion but you know the season before the number of games you have to play the next right? So why not make preparations early then?