brummiemag1

Theres absolutely no reason not to play our strongest possible team. To play a weakened team would be madness in my opinion. As you say we have a chance to win this cup and we sure as hell don't have a chance of winning the league. I would take relegation if it meant winning the FA Cup I don't understand where all this weakened teams in the cup nonsense has come from. If anything I would rather play a weakened team in the league and make the cup our number 1 priority, although there is no need to do that either. Really looking forward to the trip to Brighton next weekend, far more excited about this than a normal league away game! Do you know how many tickets we have been allocated and do you think we will sell them all?

For me this is easily the biggest and most important game of the season so far. I really think we have a chance of winning a domestic trophy for the first time in my life!

Don't forget to include the bore hole

Correction, the game has been postponed!

For anyone interested Wrexham v Brighton is being shown live on ESPN classic at 7.45pm

Of course we are a selling club, surely even you can see that. Do you think we will build on this season by keeping our best players and adding quality players to the squad in order to push on? Do you think Cabaye, Ba, Krul, Tiote, coloccini etc will all be here at the start of next season or do you think one or more will be sold and replaced by a cheaper alternative? Its obvious to anyone and everyone we are a selling club and to suggest otherwise is nonsense.

Agree with all of that - I think you sum up the situation perfectly

Would rather get to Wembley or even a good cup run than finish in 7th or even 5th for that matter We have a chance to win a major trophy if we get to Wembley but you win nothing for finishing 7th and I'm not that bothered about watching the reserves play in the Europa league

I really think we should make the FA Cup a priority for this season. We have no chance of finishing in the top 4 and personally it means little to me whether we finish 7th or 15th. We are not going down this season so lets concentrate on progressing in the cup and trying to win our first domestic trophy for 56 years. The prospect of spending the next 30 years finishing mid table in the premier league with no chance of winning it isn't very exciting as far as I'm concerned - We need to start taking the cups more seriously or we will never win anything. You can't beat an awayday in the cup with thousands of travelling geordies - its what following football is all about I cannot understand the logic of not starting with our strongest possible team and in my opinion anything less than the strongest team is disrespecting the Cup, the club and the fans. If we dont take the cup 100% seriously this season then we never will

Cheers mate!

But even then our owner is much bigger than Randy Lerner so another strike against them Actually I'm probably giving Lerner more credit than he deserves. I think Villa's strategy is basically the same as ours now - to give up all hope of ever qualifying for the Champions League (or competing with the "top" 6 for that matter) and to spend as little money as possible to stay in the division. We can look forward to competing in an annual battle of the also rans with clubs like Villa and Stoke to try and finish 7th

Everything about NUFC is bigger than Villa apart from the 3rd rate ambition of our owner

I would like to see us play our strongest possible team for this game. If we don't take the competition seriously now then we never will. There's never been a better time to really give it a proper go and try and win our first domestic trophy since 1955. I would make this competition a priorityand would even sacrifice premier league points to progress in the LeagueCup. Not that its necessary to sacrifice league points but given the choice I would take progression in the League cup over 3 points in the League. Finishing 10th in the Premier League for next decade whilst playing weakened teams in the cup competitions is so dull and uninspiring We should play our strongest possible team in all cup competitions every time (we always used to) and actually try and win something

I don't think so - I think the first double tier stand is due for completion next summer and the second part which won't begin until next year involves rebuilding the Steve Bull stand wont be finished for a couple of years

ta mate. Molyneux [?] is a ground I've never been to, so looking forward to it. Staying overnight, 8 of us in 2 cars. Its one of the very few grounds thats right in the City Centre. I think there is a reduced capacity at the moment because they are expanding the ground. One of my Wolves mates is taking me and a couple of other Newcastle fans on mini pub crawl of decent city centre boozers before the game. Its a good lively nite out in Wolverhampton in the evening if thats where you are staying, I think you will all enjoy it. Forecast to be 27c as well tomorrow which will help!

The waiting list I refer to existed some time before 2007 but I think it was after the capacity increased to 52,000. The fact is crowds are reducing and some people are losing interest, including the away support as demonstrated by the hundreds of empty seats at Villa (something I can't remember happening in the last 15 years at Villa Park) and that is a cause for concern and for me it shows the club is in decline under Ashley.

And we were then. Seriously, who other than Man U, City, Chelsea aren't these days (and maybe Arsenal, although there are signs they're heading to also-ran-ville as they are losing their best players to their "rivals", in the "approaching last year of contract" scenario, sounds awfully familiar). As for then 25,000 can you quantify/back that up ??? In another thread, I can't recall exactly which one, I believe our realistic "benchmark" appeared widely accepted as being Spurs (notwithstanding their bright-lights London advantage). Given our operating model (that can never work long term, so I keep reading) has been their operating model for years and years, what over and above competing with Spurs is our "realistic" ambition in your opinion? I understand we used to have a waiting list with 15,000 people on it so basically I would say there are more than 20,000 fans who have lost interest in going to games. Also despite the good start to the season we had loads of empty seats at the villa game - ive not known that for many many years, it was very sad to see and its another indication the club is decline. As for spurs, much as dislike them, I would say they have demonstrated far more ambition than us in recent years - they fight to keep hold of their best players for a start Guess how much the capacity went up by... I think this was after the capacity had increased to 52,000 That figure was always quoted when we were at 36,000 tbh. I'm sure someone will have the right answer with regard to that, but even if I'm wrong our home crowds are showing a year by year reduction and there were hundreds of empty seats in our end at Villa the other week which really surprised me. I can't remember the last time we didnt sell our allocation at Villa! How do you explain that if you don't think the club is in decline under Ashley?

And we were then. Seriously, who other than Man U, City, Chelsea aren't these days (and maybe Arsenal, although there are signs they're heading to also-ran-ville as they are losing their best players to their "rivals", in the "approaching last year of contract" scenario, sounds awfully familiar). As for then 25,000 can you quantify/back that up ??? In another thread, I can't recall exactly which one, I believe our realistic "benchmark" appeared widely accepted as being Spurs (notwithstanding their bright-lights London advantage). Given our operating model (that can never work long term, so I keep reading) has been their operating model for years and years, what over and above competing with Spurs is our "realistic" ambition in your opinion? I understand we used to have a waiting list with 15,000 people on it so basically I would say there are more than 20,000 fans who have lost interest in going to games. Also despite the good start to the season we had loads of empty seats at the villa game - ive not known that for many many years, it was very sad to see and its another indication the club is decline. As for spurs, much as dislike them, I would say they have demonstrated far more ambition than us in recent years - they fight to keep hold of their best players for a start Guess how much the capacity went up by... I think this was after the capacity had increased to 52,000

And we were then. Seriously, who other than Man U, City, Chelsea aren't these days (and maybe Arsenal, although there are signs they're heading to also-ran-ville as they are losing their best players to their "rivals", in the "approaching last year of contract" scenario, sounds awfully familiar). As for then 25,000 can you quantify/back that up ??? In another thread, I can't recall exactly which one, I believe our realistic "benchmark" appeared widely accepted as being Spurs (notwithstanding their bright-lights London advantage). Given our operating model (that can never work long term, so I keep reading) has been their operating model for years and years, what over and above competing with Spurs is our "realistic" ambition in your opinion? I understand we used to have a waiting list with 15,000 people on it so basically I would say there are more than 20,000 fans who have lost interest in going to games. Also despite the good start to the season we had loads of empty seats at the villa game - ive not known that for many many years, it was very sad to see and its another indication the club is decline. As for spurs, much as dislike them, I would say they have demonstrated far more ambition than us in recent years - they fight to keep hold of their best players for a start

Of course we have gone backwards - we are one of the also rans now, and we have lost 25,000 fans in the process - the potential of the club will never be realised under Ashley - a massive lost opportunity from an owner who has no ambition whatsoever.

Yes going to this game Haven't posted on here for a while but I have been reading the threads and I fully agree with most of your posts LM.

Agreed we should win the game with that team but it shows where our priorities are - in my opinion we should be playing our strongest possible team for these games and I think we are less likely to progress to the later stages unless we do

Sad to see that we are not taking the competion seriously, especially when it represents our only hope of a trophy along with the FA Cup Still we don't want to let cups get in the way of finishing 11th in the premier league As Marko on here said earlier, anyone who agrees with playing a weakened team shouldn't complain that we haven't won a trophy since 1969

A Prophet - french gangster/prison drama 8/10 Good film, great acting if you like La Haine and City of God you will like this Its grim, brutal and very realistic - not exactly a laugh a minute but well worth watching

Highly unlikely we could win it, but you never know for sure. I think we should play our strongest possible team in both cup competitions, after all its the only possible chance we will ever have of winning a trophy.