One Premiership Team Remain as FA Cup Returns
By James Formstone
April 3 2008
We take a look ahead to what could be a weekend of history in the FA Cup as three non-Premiership teams line-up in the FA Cup with at least one team from outside the top flight guaranteed a place in the showpiece Final at Wembley Stadium on the 17th May.
FA Cup Fever Returns
As the FA Cup Semi-Finals fast approach this weekend, the competition has surely never seen so many teams from outside of the Premiership reach this stage of the competition at the same time.
With a total of three teams from the Championship in the shape of Barnsley, West Bromwich Albion and Cardiff City and one from the Premiership in Portsmouth, the odds of a lower league team winning the FA Cup are very high this time around.
There was of course an added incentive for making the Semi-Finals this year as well with a trip to Wembley for all four teams this weekend which is a massive achievement for the teams and a great day out for the fans.
Barnsley Manager Simon Davey today gave a brief interview to the clubs Official Website in which he said "We are ready. The real preparation starts now and we will train tomorrow and on Saturday."
Barnsley Manager Simon Davey
Barnsley face Cardiff on Sunday afternoon (4.00pm) whilst Portsmouth face West Brom on Saturday afternoon at 12.15pm.
Portsmouth are favourites to win the competition but who knows what can happen as this season has already been full of upsets and surprises and maybe more are in store this weekend?
West Brom Manager Tony Mowbray
Tranmere's great FA Cup glories of recent years mean that many Rovers fans will be wanting to tune in to these matches to see if the minnows can upset the odds even further and maybe set up an non-Premiership Final.
Both games are Live on TV with BBC1 screening the Portsmouth v West Brom tie at lunchtime on Saturday and Sky screening the Barnsley v Cardiff tie on Sunday afternoon at 4.00pm.
