Cherry Chimes hopes for Premiership opposition in the FA Cup

The Third Round of the FA Cup is held this afternoon and Bournemouth will be ball number one in the draw at 4pm on ITV. I for one am hoping that the side draws a top Premiership club at home, because a packed Dean Court is a fantastic experience. If it were to be Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Man City, Man Utd or the like it will perhaps be as big as Real Madrid, but the prospect of AFCB taking on teams like that would no longer be seen as a forgone conclusion for the Premiership outfits. Please can we have Southampton? Ah, go on please!

Last season Bournemouth had a good run in the cup that was ended in the third round replay against Wigan at Dean Court. Eunan O'Kane scored a great goal in the first leg and sadly we were knocked out in the replay by a Boselli goal. The fact that Wigan went on to lift the cup gives me a sense that AFCB are not so far away from having a big day in such a competition. Perhaps the Wembley Arch is something that AFCB supporters will see one day either in the cup or in a play-off.

In that second leg against Wigan, AFCB had Shwan Jalal in goal and it might be a chance for Ryan Allsop to come back into the team for the cup games or perhaps even more likely Darryl Flahavan, who deserves his chance in the spotlight.

While the glamorous ties may well escape AFCB, it is not so daft to hope for a  lower team in the cup, because at home especially AFCB supporters would turn out in their numbers if we can get a good cup run going. Recent away performances also give a lot of credence to the thoughts that AFCB could reach a quarter final stage. We have seen other Championship go all the way to the final so why can't AFCB get a bit of cup luck - you can't say we aren't due some.


Update
Oh, well the draw comes out as Bournemouth at home to either Fleetwood Town or Burton Albion on 4 or 5 Jan 2014. Not quite the biggest of ties but maybe a chance to progress with a home draw. Whether one or two of those coming back from injury get to play will be intriguing. I was getting a bit worried that our Number 1 ball was not in the pot being the penultimate ball to be drawn but I had guven up by that stage saying to myself we don't want that team, I would like this one etc.