Cup Fixtures

Released this morning on the FA's website:

FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
Bitton (Home)
Preliminary Road
Winners of above will play either Bristol Manor Farm or Longwell Green Sports (Home)
1st Qualifying Road
Winners of above will play either Fairford Town or Wellington or Cinderford Town (Home)

Carlsberg Vase
1st Qualifying Road
Brislington (Home)
2nd Qualifying Round
Winners of above will play either Slimbridge or Portishead (Away)

FA Youth Cup
Preliminary Road
Gloucester City (Away)

Dates for the above:

FA Cup
Extra Preliminary Round - Saturday 20th August
Preliminary Road - Saturday 3rd September
1st Qualifying Round - Saturday 17th September

Carlsberg Vase
1st Qualifying Road - 10th September
2nd Qualifying Road - 24th September

FA Youth Cup
Week commencing 5th September

Well we cant do any worse than last season in cup competitions , surely??

Nice to have some home draws for a change.

I really hope that Sheppy puts out the strongest line-up possible in the cup games as he certainly hasn't in recent seasons.The time for giving other players a game should surely be in pre-season or when there is nothing to play for. Remember that Merthyr fans pay good money to hopefully watch the team win, and putting out a less than full strength team has been proven to result in defeat.

Llewmorc wrote:I really hope that Sheppy puts out the strongest line-up possible in the cup games as he certainly hasn't in recent seasons.The time for giving other players a game should surely be in pre-season or when there is nothing to play for. Remember that Merthyr fans pay good money to hopefully watch the team win, and putting out a less than full strength team has been proven to result in defeat.

Well, in the FA Cup last season the team against Willand was arguably stronger than in the previous league match, with Andrew Thomas replacing Jamie Thomas in defence. Otherwise the only change was Dean Clarke replacing Craig Stiens in the eleven because the latter was unavailable for that game.

In the FA Vase game last season you could again say the team was stronger than in the previous game as Craig Stiens came in for Shane Davies. The other change was Dean Clarke for Ryan Dorrian who was injured.

Looking back at the 2009/10 season in the FA Cup, I see that Ross Porter played in both games - but he'd played in 3 successive league games shortly before. Otherwise it was the usual league side at that time.

In the FA Trophy I see that Ceri Morgan played in both games, but otherwise they were the usual sides at that time.

Maybe in the League Cups in their various names over the last year or two we've given fringe players a chance, but I don't see anything wrong with that.

It may seem fabulous to play fringe players in the cup but when we lose 4-3 to Cinderford with only-I counted 3 or 4 first teamers- then we crash out of a cup competition that we could have won! We ought to be making sure we win all trophies available shouldn't we? It gives the whole place a lift. Also , when the world of football notices that we've lost to a team like that then they are no doubt going to think that we're not very good!

Llewmorc wrote:It may seem fabulous to play fringe players in the cup but when we lose 4-3 to Cinderford with only-I counted 3 or 4 first teamers- then we crash out of a cup competition that we could have won!

So it's only the League Cups we take part in that you're referring to?

I don't think Garry Shephard has been the only Merthyr manager in recent years to give fringe players a chance in League Cup ties. I don't think he's the only manager of ANY club to do so either - we see it at the highest level of the game after all!

I suppose the reasoning at our level at least is that it gives fringe players and younger players a chance to show what they can do, giving the management an opportunity to see whether they're likely to become more than fringe players and whether they're likely to progress, thus benefiting the club in the long run.

As I said, I don't think weakened sides - at least in the last couple of years - have been put out in the cups that really matter, and I don't think that's likely to happen - there's too much potential money and glory at stake in them!