FA Cup 5th Rd.: Middlesbrough v. West Bromwich Albion (17 Feb) [R]

[DevilDave]

It is expected to be a fierce encounter in the FA Cup Saturday afternoon when Albion contend with the club that is closest to Tony Mowbray's heart, Middlesbrough. Boro were the club Mogga supported as a boy, and he remains one of their all-time heroes as the team captain during the dark years of the 1980's. All sentiment will be put aside on the day, however, as we try to get reach the quarter-finals of the competition. Boro certainly have a lot of talent, but if they play as poorly as they did on Tuesday night, we will have a great chance of beating them.

I think Boro did make the mistake of under-estimating Bristol City's desire and allowed the West Country club to push them to the brink of elimination from the Cup. Southgate will probably not make that same mistake and could put forward a better squad to face our promotion-challenging side.

The league must be our focus, and we've got a tough match next Tuesday at home to Cardiff. However, I would like to see the lads give it their all to try and extend this Cup run. We are the only club to have ever won the FA Cup and won promotion in the same year. Even in this age of the Premiership's "Big Four" who's to say it can't be done again?

[DevilDave]

An FA Cup replay at the Hawthorns is in the cards after we drew with Boro at the Riverside today. Not really what we need given our crowded fixture list, but we should be glad to at least be around for the sixth round draw.

Today's match was a back-and-forth affair with both teams being able to create periods of sustained pressure in each half. It was Boro who made the breakthrough on a Julio Arca header, but Kamara pulled one back for us not long before the half. Unfortunately, a foul by Curtis Davies on Yakubu in the box - which earned the striker a penalty and our man a controversial yellow card - put Boro ahead at the break.

We dominated the match for the better part of the second half and Phillips helped us to draw level. Neither team, however, were able to make that final push at the end. Boro controlled possesstion in the dying minutes, and Curtis Davies' rash foul on Viduka late in the match earned him a second yellow on the day. Unfortunately, our captain will not be present when we contend with Cardiff Tuesday.

To summarise - we certainly showed we could play at Boro's level. However, it's too bad we couldn't have somehow found a winner as we controlled the ball during much of the second half.

Results in the Championship didn't really go our way today, and Blues are once again ahead of us with other teams just three points behind us.