1. The defeat against Crawley Town was absolutely abject – not the result itself, embarrassing though it was, but the nature of it. One part poor team selection, three parts woeful application. That’s what is difficult to take.
2. Crawley have drawn Stoke City at home in the next round. You’d fancy City at home to Stoke – and from there, you’re suddenly in the quarter-finals. It’s galling to see other clubs enjoying the FA Cup when it appears to bring us nothing but disappointment.
3. Anyway, onwards and upwards. Doncaster Rovers, Portsmouth and Bristol City are our next three opponents, and they’re all beatable. Six points or more will keep us nicely in the top six, but with Southampton wobbling, suddenly quite a few clubs must see second place opening up as a possibility. Why not us? Nine points from those games would certainly see the Tigers edging ever closer to the top two, and would atone for Crawley.
4. City’s scheduled fixtures at home to Brighton & Hove Albion and away at Cardiff City in February both now need rearranging as those sides have each taken the cup competitions seriously and find themselves both involved in money-spinning, headline-making games against Liverpool on the days they were supposed to play the Tigers. It’s an unfortunate coincidence that these two City games would have been in successive weeks, but it does mean that unless one can be allocated a February midweek slot, we could have a period of 17 days without a match – from Birmingham City away on February 14th to Blackpool away on March 2nd. That’s a long time to be not playing football, and while it may have benefits for the health of the team, it will do nothing for any momentum they may have achieved. It also, incidentally, creates an extraordinary 24-day gap between games at the KC – from Bristol City on February 11th to Leeds United on March 6th.
5. Quite clearly, the dreadful car crash against Crawley has proved that we have a poor secondary set of players backing up our fine starting XI. Maybe 14 or 15 outfield players in total, as a semi-generous figure, could state their genuine worth to the squad but there’s clearly a stack of dross also around which, irrespective of our division next season, need to be handed their sticks and handkerchiefs in the summer, a process begun this week with Will Atkinson’s departure to Bradford City.
6. It won’t happen, but it’d be great if City could use the final 48 hours of the transfer window to make a proper bid for Vito Mannone and see what Arsenal say. You never know. It’d just be nice to have a goalkeeper of our own – one who is young, gifted, ambitious and of long-term benefit to the team. Mannone himself has made noises about potentially joining up permanently in the summer, so it’s not as if the player’s own ego or sense of entitlement makes it impractical.
7. That said, a quiet transfer window may not be a bad thing, mainly because it’d mean City have managed to keep hold of everyone.
8. He mucked us around good and proper but it was only the stoniest of human hearts that didn’t melt a little when Fraizer Campbell scored in the FA Cup for Sunderland at the weekend. As the telly commentator pointed out, it had been exactly 500 days since his last taste of senior football, with horrific injuries in the interim period threatening to end the career of a young player who was just a total superstar up front for the Tigers when we got promoted. Some ex-players are unforgivable, but Campbell represents a period of total Tiger euphoria and time can heal, so of course we should join in with his joy. And the goal, a divine side-footed finish from the edge of the box, was reminiscent of the fearless, totally confident finishing he showed regularly in 2007-08 as City rose to the top flight. Brought back a lot of happy memories. Well done Fraizer.
9. Seeing Crystal Palace pin their Wembley hopes on a defensive partnership of Anthony Gardner and Paul McShane in midweek was nothing short of hilarious, and yet it almost worked, with the Eagles only losing their Carling Cup semi-final to Cardiff City on penalties in the end. It would have been a briefly joyful moment had McShane stepped up to take a kick, but that script seems, sadly, destined to remain unwritten.
10. Hearing that the Football Supporters’ Federation are bringing their safe standing roadshow to Hull is excellent news. Even if it’s not your preference to stand, the choice should be provided for those who do. We hope the event on February 11th is a success and eventually does lead to a standing area at the Circle. In the meantime, why not go sign the FSF’s petition on the issue?
