Goodbye F A Cup

On Saturday (!) Phil Parkinson has to take the coach back to Sheffield for a 4th round F A Cup tie that looks like mission impossible. United have just won two matches away from home and will be relishing the prospect of going one better than their Wednesday neighbours by battering hapless Charlton. Kevin Blackwell's team talk will be short and sweet.

United moved yesterday to add Chesterfield striking prospect Jamie Ward to their ranks. Ward signed for £330,000 but will be cup-tied for Saturday. Interesting to compare us to United at the moment. They were relegated with us but don't appear to have suffered in anything like the way we have financially. This was a club, remember, in all sorts of financial trouble eight or nine years ago. They didn't own their ground and had to rebuild it from scratch over several seasons. They may have just sold James Beattie, but again, it's interesting that they managed to hang onto him well into their second season in the Championship and his goals have fired them into a challenging position in the table and Blackwell is obviously confident that they can now cope without him - he describes Ward as "a development player" adding that he "hasn't brought him here to replace anyone."

In any event, I again fear the worst and believe we will slip out of the Cup without scoring. I can see United scrapping for a 2-0 win and Plucky Parky saying something along the lines of "despite the result that was a much better performance from the lads - I asked them to respond and they did - we are now free to concentrate on the battle to keep this great club in the Championship."