Stockport County v West Ham: FA Cup third round - live!
11-Jan-2021 19:48:50 | The Guardian
Jim Gannon of Stockport has been on tenterhooks ... “As soon as the draw was made, the anticipation started building. I had to keep reminding everyone we had nine league games before it came around!”
... as has his counterpart at West Ham, David Moyes: “It’s been a long wait until Monday night but we’re looking forward to playing.”
Right, that’s the cup draw sorted. We now know that the winners of this match will host Doncaster Rovers in the fourth round ... and if they make it past Donny, they’ll be travelling to either Old Trafford or Anfield in round five! Some carrot dangled, right there.
Related: FA Cup fourth and fifth-round draw: Man Utd face Liverpool – as it happened
David Moyes naming a strong West Ham side, there. More about tonight’s tie coming up very soon ... but they’ll be pulling the balls out of the hat for the fourth and fifth round draws in a minute, so like some 1970s prog rocker, I’m switching keyboards ahead of a 20-minute-long riff. Back soon!
Related: FA Cup fourth and fifth-round draws – live!
Stockport County: Hinchliffe, Minihan, Hogan, Maynard, Rooney, Jennings, Williams, Kitching, Keane, Croasdale, Reid.
Subs: Jennings, Palmer, Thomas, Bennett, Stott, Southam-Hales, Barnes, Gilmore, Hinchy.
West Ham United: Randolph, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Johnson, Noble, Rice, Yarmolenko, Benrahma, Lanzini, Antonio.
Subs: Trott, Baptiste, Alves, Cresswell, Soucek, Fornals, Bowen, Holland, Odubeko
Stockport County and West Ham United. Fourth in the fifth-tier National League, 14 points off the lead, versus a team seven points off the top of the Premier League. A club that has never got past the fifth round of the FA Cup against three-time winners. This should be a shoo-in for the Hammers, right?
Well, it probably should be, yes; if County win tonight, it’ll be one heck of a shock. But the thing is, despite the huge gulf between the two clubs, Stockport have the upper hand historically. The clubs have met on 14 occasions; County have won precisely half of them, with the Hammers only winning four times. The last time they met, in December 1996, third-tier Stockport put West Ham out of the League Cup, a shock principally remembered for Iain Dowie’s spectacular own goal.
Related: 'It was a midweek night in Stockport. What we achieved was bizarre'
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