FA Cup 4th Rd draw: Stoke v Cardiff

[The Lone Gunman]

Yes I was there too, back then a draw away to Stoke was a highlight, I recall it was quite “lively” before, during and after at that game !

I got it wrong yesterday - I thought Stoke were in the top flight in 1987, but I checked earlier and in fact they finished 8th in the Second Division. City, meanwhile, finished 13th in the Fourth Division.

We had a proper FA Cup run that season - a 4-1 win at Ton Pentre in the first round (that was a funny afternoon), a 2-0 victory over Brentford of the Third Division in round two, and an eventual 1-0 victory over Millwall of the Second Division in a second replay after the first two games had finished 0-0 and 2-2.

It was the same season we beat a First Division Chelsea side 2-1 in the League Cup.

[TheBirchgrovePub]

Just our luck this tie. Even a home draw would've been ok when the last two balls were left, I think we'd have had close to a Championship game crowd if it had been priced appropriately with a winnable tie to get into round 5. Instead I guess we'll take 500 to Stoke and lose 2-0

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Just our luck this tie. Even a home draw would've been ok when the last two balls were left, I think we'd have had close to a Championship game crowd if it had been priced appropriately with a winnable tie to get into round 5. Instead I guess we'll take 500 to Stoke and lose 2-0

We wouldn't have had close to a Championship game crowd. The last time we had a comparable game was in 2015, when we played Reading at home in the 4th round and got 11,750. We could sell tickets for £5 and we wouldn't get 10k to watch us play Stoke.

Our home crowds in the FA cup in recent years have been crap, bar when a PL side has played us. We had 20k for Leeds United in 2023 then nearly 6k more for a league game against them a year later when they were back in the Championship. We managed less than 7k for a home replay against Bristol City (that wouldn't have happened against the Jacks), just over 5k for a home tie against Fulham, which despite the early kickoff, wouldn't have seen thousands more turn up had it been a 3pm kickoff.

As for it being winnable at home, our home form since the 4 wins on the trot is the worst in the Championship while our away form over the same spell is ranked 7th. It would have been 3rd had we held on against Coventry and Stoke. At home we'd struggle to beat Tamworth reserves.