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 Seconds out, round 2. Cardiff get a second chance to put Orient out of
the cup and progress to the second round. A win tonight will be a major boost going into a
relegation battle on Friday with Chesterfield. Orient are staring the Conference in the
face at the moment, they are 92nd in the league and defeat for City should be unthinkable.
The winners tonight will have to travel for the second round. A trip to either Bury or
Tamworth awaits. The Shakers will be favourites to beat non league Tamworth at Gigg Lane.
If the two league teams get through then it will be a repeat of the fixture from a few
weeks ago when Bury beat City by the odd goal in 5.Going
slightly off tonights game the FA have brought in what I think is a great idea. After the
second round has been completed one of the 20 losing teams will be drawn from a hat and
reinstated to the third round to replace Manchester Utd.
On the playing front City will be without Tony Vaughan and
Josh Low the two loan players. The bluebirds have a full strength squad apart from those
two and I will update this page with a list of the squad for tonight a bit later.
The following stats are printed courtesy of John
Heyda.
Tuesday night, FA Cup action comes to Ninian Park for
the fourth year running. Should City get past Leyton Orient it will mark the fifth
consecutive season that the club has advanced to the second round. If that happens, it'll
be the first such five-in-a-row feat since the 1920s.
I've gone through City's history and have come up with (what I think is) a complete list
of the club's results in first round FA Cup play. Load up on some of this trivia and
you'll surely contend for pub bore of the week accolades! Ready? Here goes:
* City's participated in the first round 32 times, advancing to the next round 20 times
while getting knocked out 11 times (with this year's result still pending, of course).
* City's all-time record in first-round matches stands currently at 20 wins, 11 losses,
and 13 draws. The record since the end of WWII is a bit less impressive: 10 wins, six
losses, and four draws.
* City has won its last four first-round matches at Ninian, with the last loss at home
coming against Bath back in 1992. This run of four straight at home equals the club's
all-time best; a fifth straight against Orient would establish a new club record. The
club's all-time record in first-rounders at Ninian: 14 wins, three losses, and six draws.
* The loss at home to Bath in '92 was City's first defeat at Ninian in a first-round match
in 57 years! City lost to non-league Dartford at home in 1935. The only other club to
defeat City at Ninian in first-round play: Reading, in 1934.
* The replay against Leyton Orient will be City's 13th in the first
round. The club's record so far in first-round replays shows seven wins, three losses, and
two draws.
* The first-round replay with Orient Tuesday will be the first involving a league side in
66 years. The previous eight first-round encounters with league sides produced a win or a
loss the first time out.
* City's biggest first-round win came in 1931 when CCFC blasted Enfield 8-0. Eight of
City's 11 losses have been by a single goal. Only twice has City lost by as many as three
-- in 1932 to Bristol Rovers by a 4-1 count, and in 1935 to Dartford by a 3-0 margin. The
club's only other defeat by more than a single goal came in 1914, a 2-0 loss to Bristol
City.
* The club didn't make its first postwar appearance in the first round until 1975, its
second until 1982, its third until 1985. Sadly, City hasn't missed a date with the first
round since '85. I was surprised to find that in both the 1945-46 and 1946-47 seasons City
did not enter the competition until the third round in spite of its status as a
lower-division club. I don't know why City had this exemption.
* Prior to the 1925-26 competition, clubs in the top two divisions entered in the first
round. This meant that City played in the first round in each of its first five seasons in
the league, advancing each time. City took out Division 1 side Sunderland in 1920 while a
member of Division 2. In 1921-22, City's first season in Division 1, the club advanced at
the expense of Manchester United, winning 4-1 at Old Trafford. Manchester United was
relegated from Division 1 that season.
* In 1919-20, City's last season as a non-league entrant, the club defeated Oldham of
Division 1, 2-0. Rothman's Book of Football Records lists this win as one of the five best
FA Cup giant-killing acts of the prewar period.
* Beginning with the 2-0 win over Oldham in 1919, City ran off a 12-match unbeaten string
in first-round matches (seven wins, five draws). City did not lose a first-round match as
a league side until its 13th year in the league, when in 1932 the club lost at Bristol
Rovers, 4-1.
John Heyda
in Middletown, Ohio USA |
