The draw for the third round of the FA Cup took place on Monday evening at Anfield stadium, home of current FA Cup holders Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur were ostensibly dealt a decent hand by lady luck by being pitted against Danny Cowley’s Portsmouth at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
I say that, and that is exactly the attitude that came back to haunt me when we were pitted against relegated Pompey in the FA Cup Semi-Finals of 2010, our last competitive encounter against the South-coast outfit (I don’t need to spell out how that went do I? Oh go on then…)
Of course, we’ve made a hash of facing lower-league opposition in the cups in recent years, crashing out to Colchester United towards Poch’s demise, and getting knocked out by a buoyant Middlesbrough just under 9 months ago, so we cannot take anything for granted…not even a chance to see Dane Scarlett, who is currently on loan at the League One and may very well miss out on the opportunity to face his parent club. We will see.
Ties for the third round are to be played on the weekend of January 7th 2023. Below is the draw in full, and the eagle-eyed readers may very well spot some all-Premiership encounters (let’s hope you can spot them, as I’ve highlighted them in bold!).
These encounters hardly tend to live up to their much-hyped expectations in my book, and I expect no different this time around. However, I’ve been wrong before and will be wrong again, so I repeat a much-favoured phrase of mine…we will see…
- Forest Green Rovers vs Birmingham City
- Middlesbrough vs Brighton and Hove Albion
- Preston North End vs Huddersfield Town
- Boreham Wood vs Accrington Stanley
- Chesterfield vs West Bromwich Albion
- Tottenham vs Portsmouth
- Manchester City vs Chelsea
- Charlton Athletic or Stockport County vs Walsall
- Derby County vs Barnsley
- Cardiff City vs Leeds United
- Bristol City vs Swansea City
- Manchester United vs Everton
- Hartlepool United vs Stoke City
- Millwall vs Sheffield United
- Fleetwood Town vs QPR
- Hull City vs Fulham
- Oxford United vs Arsenal
- Reading vs Watford
- Grimsby Town vs Burton Albion
- Blackpool vs Nottingham Forest
- Crystal Palace vs Southampton
- Ipswich Town vs Rotherham
- Bournemouth vs Burnley
- Coventry City vs Wrexham
- Norwich City vs Blackburn Rovers
- Brentford vs West Ham United
- Aston Villa vs Stevenage
- Luton Town vs Wigan Athletic
- Liverpool vs Wolves
- Sheffield Wednesday vs Newcastle United
- Dagenham and Redbridge or Gillingham vs Leicester City
- Shrewsbury Town vs Sunderland