Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
If saying that, having experienced the Premier League and not being too keen on a Stoke City like existence where, if we had established ourselves in that division, I would have in all likelihood, have welcomed a relegation struggle to break the monotony of wondering which position between eighth and twelfth we were going to finish in, I would probably prefer winning the FA or League Cups to more of the Premier League means I'm having my cake and eating it, then I plead guilty as charged.

You implied you have been supporting City a long time, so I wonder when your attitude towards Cup competitions changed, because I refuse to believe that it was the same as it is now in, say, the eighties. My guess is that it was sometime around when you heard a manager trying to justify filling his team with reserve players for an FA or League Cup tie for the twentieth time - I'm as guilty of being brainwashed as anyone else at times, but not here because there was no footballing reason to justify fielding weakened teams in cup competitions thirty years ago and there still isn't now.

The modern attitude towards Cup competitions is purely down to finance and, given the potential consequences of relegation from the Premier League when it comes to a club's balance sheet, I have a degree of sympathy for sides at that level who are in danger of going down if they decide that they do not want to risk injury to their best players in an FA Cup tie.

However, I just don't get why any side below the top flight would act in the same way and, coming back to City, I think the attitude they have shown towards Cup competitions (i.e. almost hoping to be beaten) has been counter productive - certainly since our relegation three years ago.

You say we are in a "precarious, uncertain position" and yet all I hear since the appointment of Neil Warnock is that we won't be relegated. As it it, I tend to agree with you - although we are slowly climbing the table and gradually putting more points between us and the bottom three, it wouldn't take a lot to see us dropping again and so, I say relegation is still a distinct possibility.

Nevertheless, I think a run to, say, the Fifth Round with, possibly, a win that would send confidence levels among the team and supporters soaring (it could have been Cardiff v Swansea in Round Four if results had gone a different way) along the way, would make relegation less likely than it is after Sunday's miserable match and occasion which, for me at least, sucked away so much of the feelgood factor that had been around after the Villa win.

One last thing, there was only a year between the Stoke Play Off defeat and us beating QPR at the Millennium Stadium.
I am not sure you read my quasi-lighthearted thread "All in all... a good day out" but if you did you would realise my tone and the reasons for it regarding Sundays game and as I said in it, I didn't really want to debate it in any detail, for one thing I don't have the time but also because I've learned it best not to take watching City too seriously for health reasons.
However, seeing as you have put the time in with feeling then it is only right I should reciprocate.

It is fair to say that my views don't differ hugely from yours except from the fact that I have accepted that the game has moved on from those eighties you allude to and accepted the reasons that money has changed attitudes to the things we have always held dear, i.e. the domestic cups.
It's a fact that mediocre players are earning a fortune and don't seem too bothered whether they even play, let alone win!

Your main beef (I think!) is that we fielded a weaker team but I'm not so sure NW did.
Most played the week before in a tough match against Villa with the exceptions of Huws and Halford who he needed to have a look at for the run in, plus Richards and Lambert who not long ago people were praising.
Truth is NW WARNOCK HAS A JOB TO DO. TO KEEP US UP (WITH SOME LITTLE ADDITIONAL TASK OF GETTING MONEY FOR THE DROSS AND STRENGTHENING THE SQUAD WITH THAT CASH).
I SUSPECT HE DIDN'T REALISE HOW TOUGH A JOB HE WAS TAKING ON, whether it be the lack of quality or for some reason them not willing to pull in the same direction... he still has work to do!
Our exit from the cup is not solely down to NW playing a bunch of seconds.
It's much more complicated than that.

Also, my apologies for yet another faux pas :homer:. Of course it was a year later (for 'years' read 'months' or '46 games') but my point for that time is clear.
The Championship was/is Big time, League 1 was/is nowhere.
Following the Stoke S/F playoff game, the reality is we would still be in the wilderness (where mighty Sheffield United have been for some time!).

I also take your point about a winning team, feelgood factor and confidence but a run in the cup can also be an unwelcome distraction as Wigan, Portsmouth among others, will testify.

P.S. Sorry about the Caps lock!