Fulham vs. Aston Villa - FA Cup 3rd Round

Fulham plays its first FA Cup match this season by hosting Aston Villa on Saturday in the 3rd Round. The two teams facing each other could not give two shits about what happens in the FA Cup (pardon my French). Fulham is dealing with injuries at a number of positions and is focused on staying in the hunt for promotion to the Premier League. Meanwhile Aston Villa is also dealing with key injuries as they look to stay out of the relegation zone. On Saturday Villa likely lost Wesley, their striker, for the remainder of the season and Heaton, their great goalkeeper, also left with a knee injury. Plus, on Wednesday Villa are in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup because they managed to beat the Liverpool U-23's. With that background we are likely to see a youthful lineup from both squads in a match that both sides would probably not care much if they lost.

On the plus side, regardless of the result, it cannot be as embarrassing as Fulham's 3rd round FA Cup match from last year. Oldham Athletic, from League Two, came from behind and beat a Fulham squad at Craven Cottage that included a number of Premier League starters. Sorry for bringing up a result you all had probably successfully forgotten!

 

First chance to see Hector with the senior squad. Should be interesting. I personally am not concerned about a cup run, but I do look forward to observing the younger players and some others that I've forgotten about (Cisse).

 

Ignore what I said. Younger players only on the bench and will likely only get injury time type cameos if they see the pitch. Not sure about the top three, but we’ll see....

 

I don't understand why Kamara isn't playing.

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/match?gameId=560367

You were right about those goals HD. Not the extended highlights, but a couple crackers.

 

Those WERE a pair of crackers! My word! Don’t know how well this bodes for our immediate future, but I’ll certainly take it. I liked Knockaert when he was with Brighton, hoped for better than he’s shown for us thus far. Maybe this will get him going. Arter too, for that matter. I suspect Parker started Rodak instead of Betts to get Hector and he better acquainted on the pitch at real game speed. I only got to see the first and last half of the first half, so I don’t know how we did overall. The funny thing about team sports is how one guy can impact the entire chemistry of a side. Look at Liverpool before and after van Dijk. Could Hector have the same effect on Fulham? Fingers crossed he can, and we reel off another unbeaten run like two years ago.

 

The 10 minute highlights on FFCTV are available to EVERYONE right now:
https://www.fulhamfc.com/first-team/2019_2020/fa-cup/3rd-round/aston-villa/match-action

I don't know if this is a mistake or intentional (since the video also has some editing errors in it) but enjoy it while you can!

EDIT: Upon further investigation it appears that ALL highlights on fulhamfc.com are available to EVERYONE. I really hope this is a permanent change so that we don't always have to reference the feed from other clubs.

EDIT 2: The highlights from other clubs are still informative. These from Aston Villa show how close Fulham were to going down a goal or two in the first half:

 

Just wanted to point out I had no idea what I was talking about!
I should have listened to my son, the Villa fan, who said that the teams would use the chance to try some different people and formations that they could use in league play.

 

We are awash in highlights! Ten more minutes from the FA Cup itself:

 

Fulham gets Manchester City in the fourth round of the FA Cup at the Etihad.



On the plus side, Fulham will get to split the gate receipts for a big stadium.

 

I think the trip to the Etihad might be more adventurous than it appears. Citeh aren't nearly as good defensively as in the the recent past. I think they miss Kompany (although he was hurt more often than not) and a few of the other old hands from days gone by. Still, they've got more than enough reserve firepower to pry us open like a cheap can of Spam, so I'm not getting too excited about it.