Friday, 1 January 2010

FA Cup Third Round Fixtures 2nd January Part 2

Bristol City v Cardiff City
These two teams might play their home games in different countries but they’re still pretty close together. Lewin Nyatanga won’t play for Bristol City after his ‘unprofessional’ yellow cards - his manager’s words, not mine. I can’t be bothered to look through the Football League Show to see the incident again but far from its being unprofessional, I think it could be classed as a professional foul, though technically he received a second yellow rather than a straight red. If Gavin Williams has recovered from his concussion, he should play (and I think he deserved to as he was excellent in his first start a few days ago).
Bristol City have recalled Christian Ribeiro from his loan spell at Stockport (I doubt Bristol C need him as much as Stockport do but he’s still their player) so he must be in with a chance of a place in the bench at least. Otherwise, why bother recalling him? James Wilson has returned from his loan to Brentford on New Year’s Day but he’s injured.
Cardiff will be looking to bounce back from letting a 4-0 lead slip against Peterborough United (although to be fair in many ways drawing a game under those circumstances must be more of an achievement than winning it). Joe Ledley scored Cardiff’s first two goals but should only play if his hip is up to it – and if he hasn’t signed a contract with another club: Cardiff have admitted that Joe wants to leave. Adam Matthews did well for Cardiff against Peterborough (well he did in the first half) so I’m hoping he’ll play.

Fulham v Swindon Town
This match will come too soon for Simon Davies, who is still having trouble with his ankle.

Leicester City v Swansea City

Andy King has become one of Leicester’s best players and after a fantastic 2009 he still wants to improve. Nicky Adams is managing to get on the bench every week but I can’t remember when he actually came off it. Isn’t he due a game, Leicester?
Ashley Williams is likely to start for Swansea and while Joe Allen was removed early this week it was only because they’d gone down to ten players and needed another defender. As long as Swansea start with eleven players, he’s in with a chance. And I certainly hope David Cotterill will be somewhere about. Manager Paolo Sousa says he might give fringe players a run-out against Leicester – it sounds a bit of a gamble to me – but there’s no denying Swansea have some excellent fringe players who deserve to be in the team.

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