***OFFICIAL MATCHDAY THREAD - CARDIFF V MACCLESFIELD***

[Tyrion TannisterGlobal Superstar]

First topic message reminder :

Here I am, stepping up to the plate as promised since I've been so quick to critiscise in the past. If we win, my pride takes a boost and I can retire from official threads a happy man. If we lose, I'm going to declare myself a hero for allowing us to escape a potetially league ruining cup run. If we draw, depends on the performance.

Even with a reserve team, we should surely put them to sword pretty easily right? 2-0, ill be modest.

Also, does anyone really believe Malky's newspaper words about how he 'is taking the cup seriously but the first team need a rest'? Just be out with it, he doesn't give a damn, the players don't give a damn, and we don't really give a damn either.

[RhysGlobal Superstar]

RED614OUT#

[RhysGlobal Superstar]

REEEEDDDDD!!!!


WHHATTTT HAVE YOU DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SteWellsTeam Captain]

Ummmm, yeah, so we concentrate on the league now, right?

[RhysGlobal Superstar]

To be fair, Velco has looked completely uninterested and not much about him.

Maybe would fair better with better team mates about him

[NN2Red2Vice Captain]

The message sent out to our opponents by this fiasco is "Get stuck in - the City second string are shite!"
I think today's team selection was a disgrace to the FA Cup and we got exactly what we deserved!!
Fecking Rubbish!!!!

[Tyrion TannisterGlobal Superstar]

Oh dear, but oh well. Ill claim my second goal, give us a get out of jail card of this cup

Just smile and take the 'embarrassment' guys. ITV and the like are relishing telling everyone 'a conference team beat Cardiff' without any mentioning of the fact virtually half our side are under 18, and only McNaughton can boast regular league appearances. It was a training game. One we should of done better in considering, but still not a 'giant killing'. That would of been if we played, you know, ANY of our starting 11.

[Tyrion TannisterGlobal Superstar]

To be fair, Velco has looked completely uninterested and not much about him.

Maybe would fair better with better team mates about him

Complete lack of supply thanks to our shabby midfield, you can't judge him from it. He got one decent attempt and made a very decent effort from it, but it's not enough to grade him on.

I must say, it was an emberassing showing for our youth players. They've been paraded around as a masterpiece by the club as of late, but for the most part they played like a pub team.

[RhysGlobal Superstar]

Cue patronising comments from city fans:

But seriously, let them have their day. If this is the biggest day in their clubs history, then good on them.


On a separate note, how development team are crap.

[NN2Red2Vice Captain]

Oh dear, but oh well. Ill claim my second goal, give us a get out of jail card of this cup

Just smile and take the 'embarrassment' guys. ITV and the like are relishing telling everyone 'a conference team beat Cardiff' without any mentioning of the fact virtually half our side are under 18, and only McNaughton can boast regular league appearances. It was a training game. One we should of done better in considering, but still not a 'giant killing'. That would of been if we played, you know, ANY of our starting 11.

That's not how it will look in the history books!!

Can somebody, anybody present hard facts and figures that selecting weakened sides for one competition has a provable, positive benefit on the results in the competition that is being preferred? "Let's rest the First Team" has a certain logic to it, but is it really, provable as beneficial?

[TDAGlobal Superstar]

This was a big two fingers to the FA Cup by Malky, nothing more......

He learned the hard way last season about the distractions that can ruin a league campaign. Today, he could have started with the same 11, but had perhaps Rudy, Noone and Gunnarsson on the bench if he needed to go the plan B.

I don't think he'll be worried and neither should we. If anything, this demonstrates how much more effective it will be to have a big cheque book rather than an in house "development programme".

Harris was shockingly disappointing, which, along with a very ordinary looking Nat Jarvis, I think were the only downsides of what I saw.

I would expect Velcro, John, Nugent & maybe Coulston to make their marks with better players around them.......Ralls & Kiss too.

[Tyrion TannisterGlobal Superstar]

Oh dear, but oh well. Ill claim my second goal, give us a get out of jail card of this cup

Just smile and take the 'embarrassment' guys. ITV and the like are relishing telling everyone 'a conference team beat Cardiff' without any mentioning of the fact virtually half our side are under 18, and only McNaughton can boast regular league appearances. It was a training game. One we should of done better in considering, but still not a 'giant killing'. That would of been if we played, you know, ANY of our starting 11.

That's not how it will look in the history books!!

Can somebody, anybody present hard facts and figures that selecting weakened sides for one competition has a provable, positive benefit on the results in the competition that is being preferred? "Let's rest the First Team" has a certain logic to it, but is it really, provable as beneficial?

It's an argument that could easily fill its own topic. The history books will indeed simply at we lost to a conference side, but it's also of note it's only the third round, we've had much better performances that would have far more attention (one in particular). We're a championship side, that means in theory there are at least twenty teams that are more likely to win the cup than ourselves. Every cup run we have is a surprise and the sin even more magic. A loss in our first round? Irrelevant regardless of who it was.

And the resting the team point, I think you are half right. Putting out the squad as we did is indeed an insult, but it's no worse than what virtually every other tea around does when faced with the situation we were. I don't think it should be done, the cup has so much history it deserves more than that, but we can't change that alone. Until the FA does something to make it more prestigious again, we'd be one of the few teams at around our level that really give a damn about it - an empty win.

I don't think resting your entire team helps anything. Football is a sport where the more you play the better you become (until you get tired), so the whole team missing a game will do a little bit of damage to their teamwork capabilities and own effect, much in the same way the best football of the season is never played at the start of it. Likewise however it's impossible for a team to play the same starting 11 in every single league and cup match. You have to give some rest to players that are getting tired and the decision then has to be made to sabotage your league or cup runs. If you don't, and I bring out two recent cup finals forward as evidence, we start suffering from overtired players.

You have to modern football give players occasional rests to keep them at the top of their game and avoid injury, but resting them all simultaneously can just make the gears rusty in my opinion. Resting a few means the team can stay in good practice and the reintroduced players can readjust much faster. The decision therefore has to be made what means more to the team - and you're hard pushes to pick anything but the league.

[TDAGlobal Superstar]

Not so long ago, it was an FA "offence" to field a weakened team in any competition. That was changed under pressure from the clubs and what we see now is the result of that capitulation by the FA...........ironically it is their own "blue ribbon" event that has been devalued.......

[Arkay DubyaGlobal Superstar]

I'll go for a I've-never-been-more-confident-and-it-guarantees-to-be-my-undoing 3-0.

Well, I've had a here

Red has had a here

Malky has had a here

The Cardiff team today has had a here

All in all, a bit of a day

[TDAGlobal Superstar]

I'll go for a I've-never-been-more-confident-and-it-guarantees-to-be-my-undoing 3-0.

Well, I've had a here

Red has had a here

Malky has had a here

The Cardiff team today has had a here

All in all, a bit of a day

I don't think so, poor old Red was on a hiding to nothing today, even with all of his excuses beforehand. Given the inexperience of the City side, the game was never going to be easy. The development team had hardly set the world alight up to now this year, so I am not sure why expectation had been fuelled so much. I was surprised that there were no first teamers at all involved. The game was pretty much written off with that decision.

Not wishing to blow my own do-dah, but I think my prediction of 1 - 1 must have been the closest, but I wasn't daft enough to start the thread..........

[TDAGlobal Superstar]

The fans who perhaps are entitled to feel let down are those who have spent their hard-earned money travelling to watch the game.........

That said, I wonder how many others changed their minds about going once Malky had announced that none of the first team would be involved......

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