Post by GasMacc1 on Nov 30, 2016 7:15:38 GMT
The Excitement of the FA Cup Draw: “Oh No, Not Them Again!”
Doesn’t your heart sink when the FA Cup draw pitches two teams from the same division against each other? Or is it just me? League football is a long slog, between clubs that have become very familiar to each other. The prospect of a match between clubs that rarely meet lends magic to the Cup.
Of the 96 rounds contested by Bristol Rovers between 1969-70 and 2015-16, fewer than half of them have been against “one-time” opponents. We’ve only been drawn against a club on 45 occasions that we haven’t subsequently been paired with in another season in the FA Cup.
Our cry of “oh no, not them again” has most frequently gone up when we’ve been drawn against Ipswich and against Southampton. We met both, for the first time in the FA Cup, in the great run of 1978, in the fourth-round mud against Saints and in the fifth-round snow against the Tractor-boys (as they weren’t called then). Since then, both clubs have been our opponents on a further three occasions.
Rovers also seem to have been magnetised towards another 7 clubs that we’ve faced in three FA Cup seasons: Bournemouth, Fulham, Plymouth, Leyton Orient, Aldershot, Aston Villa and Derby.
Bristol Rovers FA Cup Opponents more than t....pdf (23.32 KB)
Clubs from the top two tiers only enter the FA Cup at the 3rd round. So if we only consider rounds 3 to 6, Rovers have played the same six clubs on 17 occasions out of the 38 later round games for which we have qualified. Two of the four games against Ipswich came in round 3, the other two in round 5. Our enthusiasm for matches against Southampton, Villa and Derby must be starting to wane, as we’ve been drawn against them three times each. We’ve also faced Forest and Luton twice each in the later rounds.
Bristol Rovers FA Cup Opponents more than o....pdf (22.74 KB)
The table below shows the complete list of clubs Rovers have faced in more than one season in the FA Cup between 1969-70 and 2015-16.
Doesn’t your heart sink when the FA Cup draw pitches two teams from the same division against each other? Or is it just me? League football is a long slog, between clubs that have become very familiar to each other. The prospect of a match between clubs that rarely meet lends magic to the Cup.
Of the 96 rounds contested by Bristol Rovers between 1969-70 and 2015-16, fewer than half of them have been against “one-time” opponents. We’ve only been drawn against a club on 45 occasions that we haven’t subsequently been paired with in another season in the FA Cup.
Our cry of “oh no, not them again” has most frequently gone up when we’ve been drawn against Ipswich and against Southampton. We met both, for the first time in the FA Cup, in the great run of 1978, in the fourth-round mud against Saints and in the fifth-round snow against the Tractor-boys (as they weren’t called then). Since then, both clubs have been our opponents on a further three occasions.
Rovers also seem to have been magnetised towards another 7 clubs that we’ve faced in three FA Cup seasons: Bournemouth, Fulham, Plymouth, Leyton Orient, Aldershot, Aston Villa and Derby.
Bristol Rovers FA Cup Opponents more than t....pdf (23.32 KB)
Clubs from the top two tiers only enter the FA Cup at the 3rd round. So if we only consider rounds 3 to 6, Rovers have played the same six clubs on 17 occasions out of the 38 later round games for which we have qualified. Two of the four games against Ipswich came in round 3, the other two in round 5. Our enthusiasm for matches against Southampton, Villa and Derby must be starting to wane, as we’ve been drawn against them three times each. We’ve also faced Forest and Luton twice each in the later rounds.
Bristol Rovers FA Cup Opponents more than o....pdf (22.74 KB)
The table below shows the complete list of clubs Rovers have faced in more than one season in the FA Cup between 1969-70 and 2015-16.
| How many different seasons? | Opponents |
| 4 | Ipswich, Southampton |
| 3 | Bournemouth, Fulham, Plymouth, Orient, Aston Villa, Aldershot, Derby County |
| 2 | Preston, Gillingham, Exeter, Wycombe, Brentford, Barnet, Telford, Swansea, Bristol C£&y 82, Luton, Nottingham Forest |