Key events
Our FA Cup-flavoured Football Daily, for your reading pleasure.
“Nice aerial photo of the Clough Arena, thanks and isn’t it great to see so many top level sports all within walking distance?” notes Jeremy Boyce, via email. “As an ex-oarsman/rower I have to point out that you totally overlooked the the boathouses of Nottingham Rowing Club and their jetties/pontoons between the City Ground and the Trent Bridge itself. The Trent is a hothouse of top-level rowing and not far from the national rowing centre at Holme Pierrepont. Our rowers, unlike our footballers, consistently win World Championships, Olympics and anything else going, so I think they deserve mention. Interesting match up tonight, recently promoted side doing well versus recently-promoted side suffering a big reality check. I suspect they will both take it seriously, chance for glory, chance for salvation. 2-1 to Ipswich but relegated all the same.”
A great email, Jeremy, thanks! I was completely ignorant to the Trent’s reputation for rowing. Although I have to disagree with your prediction. Hard to look past Forest tonight, especially with those line-ups.
Will Unwin, our correspondent at the City Ground tonight, has been in touch to say he’s been reliably informed that England manager Thomas Tuchel is in attendance tonight (with his first game less than three weeks away). The bad news for Tuchel is that Morgan Gibbs-White and Liam Delap are both on their side’s respective benches.
Could Alex Palmer wiggle his way into being Tuchel’s third-choice keeper? He’s certainly got an outside chance, given recent performances.
Callum Hudson-Odoi is possibly the only person who could make the squad, although you might remember that he and TT fell out at Chelsea.
Nottingham Forest have, Chris Wood and Morgan Gibbs-White aside, named a strong side. Ipswich have not, with manager Kieran McKenna obviously (and sadly) prioritising Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace.
The teams!
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Aina, Murillo, Morato, Alex, Danilo, Sangare, Elanga, Yates, Hudson-Odoi, Awoniyi.
Subs: Hennessey, Williams, Anderson, Wood, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, Jota Silva, Sosa, Boly.
Ipswich: Palmer, Tuanzebe, Woolfenden, Burgess, Johnson, Jack Taylor, Morsy, Luongo, Townsend, Hirst, Broadhead.
Subs: Muric, O’Shea, Greaves, Davis, Cajuste, Philogene-Bidace, Clarke, Delap, Tom Taylor.
Preamble
Cynics that believe in revenue and overheads and boring, financially-sensible things like that would say that both Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town need a run deep into the FA Cup like a hole in the head. But there’s Champions League qualification/Premier League survival to fight for, one might hear a chief executive shout, somewhere.
Those that believe in glory and winning-at-all-costs and silverware and making trophy-starved fans happy might beg to differ. Margaret Thatcher was still prime minister when Nottingham Forest last won a major trophy (the 1990 League Cup) 35 years ago. Ipswich haven’t won a thing since 1992, the Football League Second Division title, and not a major trophy since the 1980–81 Uefa Cup.
Even with the league season approaching the home straight, an FA Cup quarter-final tie against Brighton remains a tantalising prize for the victor of tonight’s last-16 tie, and this is a winnable game for both teams, although Forest are of course the favourites.
What’s more, with so many so-called bigger clubs already eliminated from this season’s competition, winning the whole damn thing – the FA Cup, just imagine! – is a realistic and overwhelming prospect!
Let’s hope both sides go for it.
Kick-off: 7.30pm GMT
