Blues travel to Boro in FA Cup

November 29, 2009

MARK Hughes will face old United teammate Gordon Strachan in the FA Cup third round.

City have been handed a trip to Middlesbrough, now under the former Celtic manager and Reds winger.

Meanwhile, Kettering , a team once managed by former United boss Ron Atkinson, could be booking a dream ticket to Old Trafford in the New Year.

The Cinderella Midlands outfit nearly out-foxed the once mighty Leeds United yesterday to remain possible opponents to United in the third round.

DRAW: Tottenham v Peterborough Brentford v Doncaster Middlesbrough v Man City Stoke v York Notts County v Forest Green Huddersfield v West Brom Sheff Utd v QPR Milton Keynes Dons v Burnley Chelsea v Watford Nottm Forest v Birmingham Preston v Colchester West Ham v Arsenal Aston Villa v Blackburn Portsmouth v Coventry Sunderland v Oxford Utd/Barrow Wigan v Hull Everton v Carlisle Sheff Wed v Crystal Palace Tranmere/Aldershot v Wolverhampton Blackpool v Ipswich Fulham v Swindon Stockport/Torquay v Brighton Scunthorpe v Barnsley Southampton v Rotherham/Luton Bristol City v Cardiff Reading v Liverpool Staines Town/Millwall v Derby Plymouth v Newcastle Leicester v Swansea Bolton v Lincoln City Acrington/Barnet v Gillingham Man Utd v Kettering/Leeds Ties to be played over the weekend of the 2nd/3rd January end.

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Louis K (29/11/2009 at 17:26)

Sack the manager - we got an away draw in the cup

Louis K (29/11/2009 at 17:27)

We need Hiddink now - cup draws like this cannot continue.

Dukinfield Blue, Manchester (29/11/2009 at 17:45)

Strachan will be sniffing a big money scalp here, things need to change well before we play this lot.

Happy To Be Blue, Manchester (29/11/2009 at 17:48)

Nothing for us there I'm afraid.

kevodevo (29/11/2009 at 18:06)

plenty of time for the wind to change- boro pose no threat and a good away win - lookin forward to the 4th round

Esso Blue, In Association with prometheus , Manchester (29/11/2009 at 18:18)

That could well be a good scalp for Leeds.

Bigmouth strikes again, Manchester (29/11/2009 at 18:38)

Sam Haggar-Lowestoft-MCFC4LIFE (29/11/2009 at 18:53)

ok a draw now about the Hughes sacking debate

Give him till the new if nothing has improve our next few games then we will have to act before our season is over.I wont want hughes to go but some of his signings are turning to flops.

climb57, Droylsden (29/11/2009 at 19:05)

the next two games could be mark Hughes swansong.

The Insider, CTID. (29/11/2009 at 19:06)

Just off topic, i take it that all the doom merchants on here who said that Hughes was destroying our accademy & pushed Jim cassel out have seen the interview with jim on th MCFC website, you will see he still manages the structure of the accademy & he appointed the new manager Andy Welsh it has nothing to do with MH, Duck egg blue etc, goes to show they want to pick the manager & that they are right, but know very little about the club they supposedly support !!! CTID BELIEVE.

Lagos Kev, Nigeria West Africa (29/11/2009 at 19:13)

The way Chelsea played today there is nowt down for us next weekend. This is followed by away at Bolton who love to rub our very expensive noses it and away to Harry Potter and his in form Spurs. We will be out of the league cup and overtaken by Sunderland Stoke and Fulham by mid December. I don't think this will be in the owners' plan. At least with new top class management in place by January we can still have a full tilt at a Cup run and a top six finish. Top class management may also help in bringing in Torres, you can bet that the big European names will be saying Mark who?

HAYMAN BACK IN BOLTON, WESTHOUGHTON (29/11/2009 at 19:21)

Will Hughes have perfected the art of winning by then ? Will Eddie. his coach, be able to motivate our players to beat a lowly team like Boro' ? Will our expensive stars care about the fans that will have braved the inevitable freezing Boro weather ?

ted knott, droylsden (29/11/2009 at 19:26)

Middlesborough away constitutes a hard game for City especially in view of they lack mental strength
It is fairly obvious to most City fans that Mark Hughes is totally inept, he is failing in his job whereas his motivation levels are sinking quicker than the titanic did almost 98 years ago, he doesn't appear to have much of a game plan and I think the job has become a burden for him because it is too big,the expations are massive and quite understandable too considering the vast ammount of money that has been splashed out on new players it just isn't working out for him and in truth I cannot see the present situation changing at all, but how much longer will our owners remain paient towards him as one victory in 10 games is just totally unacceptable it appears some good players have become bad ones overnight.
However although the blame lies firmly at Hughes and his backroom team some of our players such as Bridge,Lescott,Ireland,SWP and Barry have to accept responsibilty for their inconsistency,Hapless defending,poor control,awful passing and a very low mental strength and of a consequence the other members of the squad are suffering because of this pathetic underachieving.
The bottom line is Hughes is the manager and we all have to ask ourselves 'does he have the ability to eradicate the worrying errors in defence,does he have himself the mental strength to induce more passion with crisper passing, a better first touch and moreso a quicker tempo during games?'
With Chelsea up next it will take a brave man to bet on a City victory but stranger things have happened in football but realistically I think we should start looking for a major improvement beyond the next two games Arsenal & Chelsea.The situation to be fair is not good at all and no doubt our owners will be already aware of the a concerning run of results and performances.
l

Edski Vega, Nottingham (29/11/2009 at 19:44)

Another early cup exit guaranteed.....

ted knott, droylsden (29/11/2009 at 19:48)

Our Academy lost again yesterday this time to PNE in the FA Youth Cup --we know Jim Cassell has been shifted to a higher post but whats happened to people such as Paul Power,Alex Gibson and Frankie Bunn?
We beat Chelsea 18 month ago to lift the prestigous FA Youth Cup yet only Weiss has come through and even then Hughes wont give him a game from the bench.In stark contrast Chelsea fielded no less than five members of their squad the City lads beat to win the Cup in their last home game against Wolves --just what is going on?

Bert Trautmann's FG42 , The Eastern Front of Manchester (29/11/2009 at 20:13)

I read Sheikh Mansour is close to buying the "Eastlands" area outright. Does that mean a new name for the stadium we can all agree upon?

City of Manchester Stadium, COMS, Comstad, SportCity, Eastlands.... None of us can make up our minds. I'd even go as far as to say, we don't have a home until it's known in all circles by one name and one name only.

I'd even accept the Etihad Stadium. Short and sweet and there'd be no more of this "Eastlands" piffle. Though I'd suggest a naming competition first from fans young and old.

DDJ, Redditch (29/11/2009 at 20:16)

PhilB65, City Forever...

Go have a look at 'Hughes Frustration at City Draw' story when you advised me to chill and relax. I would love to see your comments on my posts 298 & 299 - get back to me as soon as you like.

Gerry Gow's jockstrap (29/11/2009 at 20:38)

Going to be hard for us at Boro. But at least Hughes won't be picking the team then. After the way Chelsea played today & the way we are playing. I am not looking forward to taking my seat & watching a heavy defeat. Hughies may as well swallow his pride & say Lescott was a waste of money & Richards is useless. Then bring in Kompany & Onuha in. Won't stop Drogba & co. But might just reduce the score line. But then again they have lost more than us this season. So might just squeeze a draw out of it.

Mabalsa Ricci, Manchester (29/11/2009 at 20:43)

Esso Blue, In Association with prometheus, why are you talking about Leeds draw with United, and not mentioning the result of city's cup tie? Because like lots of bitters, you are obsessed with United.
Bigmouth strikes again, Manchester.......

.....So says the rag muppet posting on a City page! Obsessed much?!

MASSIVE clubs r us, salford (29/11/2009 at 20:56)

as a red i am glad that hughes went to city, before you jump to shoot me down the reason being rather than the obvious is hughes was apparently being groomed as the successor to fergie ,thank god he came to you to put that rumour to bed ,i was prepared to slate city for there recent short comings due to the amount of city duck eggs upon the reds forum , but whilst looking through your forum noticed that the duckeggs tend not to print on there own site , therefore bringing me to the conclusion............ who do they really support?????????????? so i shall now go back to my own forum and slate the mystery supporters.........

Bob the Baker, Preston (29/11/2009 at 21:14)

Whatever life throws at me,through goodtimes & bad,through poor times & rich,I have at least the consollation that at least I have my self-respect.I could've been a Rag!

Unite against the UAF (29/11/2009 at 21:29)

Maybe we could really bore them and go for a 0-0 draw so we can get them back to our place in front of a half empty stadium with no atmosphere and go for a DRAW and maybe win it on penalties.

It doesn't have to be like this, but it is at the moment, WHY ?

wheniwasyoung, gorton (29/11/2009 at 21:32)

pay back time after our last visit

pete O, Glossop (29/11/2009 at 21:48)

We are out of the FA Cup before a ball has been kicked. The lack of mental strength is still there in spades with this team as someone has already pointed out. Chelsea were awesome against Arsenal today and they have that mental strength thing in spades. I am old enough to remember when Chelsea were the London Man City - a laughing stock, getting relegated regularly and woefully inconsistent. The DNA has been changed and that's what needs to happen here.

We need a manager who doesn't feel that pressure. Hiddink is 62 I think, been there, done that. He won't feel the pressure. A couple of seasons with him at the helm could provide a solid foundation for a younger manager in due course.

bludarnsarf (29/11/2009 at 22:01)

Bigmouth strikes again, Manchester
29/11/2009 at 18:38

Whilst he comments and criticises others, the amount of posts from Big Mouth on this side would point to him being obsessed with City!

Would have thought he might be more concerned with four defeats so early in the season to the reds than a possible manager change amid one defeat at City?

And for all you doom mongers, the man who changes the manager is the chairman and owner. If he/they are content as to how the season is progressing, bearing in mind our target is sixth, and they are the ones making the big investment, then no doubt they will make that decision. If not they may just have faith that Hughes might turn it around. Who knows ..............only time will tell.

Until then suggest we all reign it in a little - some might just be worrying themselves for no reason!

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