Sunderland fans not bothered with the F.A CUP?

Over 16000, and to be fair plenty of folk there short of cash. Add to that the knowledge that the manager is picking a weakened team, and that's the result.

4,500 Saints too.

Fair play to them.

Saints manager not bothered more to the point!

Always amazes me how far down the priority list this once great cup is dropping.

amazing crowd for a reserve match, which is what it was,

absolute disgrace from saints manager southampton giving up on chance of getting to wembley, shocking

why though? i cant understand it.its the second biggest thing they play for.i blame the champs league. its their priority now but it bores the pizs out of me.saints or most teams cant get into champs league so why not go for it today.they have a wee off after today.

its the top trophy as only 4 teams are likely to win the Premiership for the most part

a wee off? thats taking the pi$$

Can understand Poet resting players as they have a relegation battle and the league cup final coming up but i'm completely baffled as to why Pochettino would rest players

Because he's use to managing in Spain,Thought there was a second leg

Cups in other countries are even further down the priority lists for many would have though too.

im disgusted,cannot believe how poch could not take this seriously,he must've thought it was the
league cup.feel sorry for the fans who made the long journey,i felt we had a real chance of getting
to Wembley this year

Sheff United today got  25,118

agree Geos ,can't see what Pochetinno was thinking .

Comp is wide open

What are they concentrating on , finishing 8th rather than 9th

Is it true,
Swansea only took 200 to Goodison Park today?

Owners these days are only interested in one thing. So there's nigh-on only two solutions to save the FA Cup - give it not only a guaranteed Champions League place, but guaranted Champions League group stage place, or more likely chuck an awful lot of prize money at it to finally make it worthwhile to these modern day losers.

When our manager(Poyet) comes out before the game and says he'd "Rather lose than draw the game" then you know just how low down in his list of priorities this game was for him.

As a fan I want to see us win silverware, football is all about winning and chances to progress into quarter finals don't come round every season, chairmen and owners are only interested in PL survival though. Sad times.

theres no problem with the final darlo, its the earlier stages that lack interest to joe public


i suspect the cup was popularised by tv coverage, and like so many other sports when sky
came along and offered more exciting alternatives its days were numbered


maybe they can go down cricket lines and have a 20 minutes a half tournament
with 7 players a team and music blasting out every 5 minutes to drive the old fogies away

were you there roker ?

Feb 16, 2014 -- 10:21PM, donny osmond wrote:

theres no problem with the final darlo, its the earlier stages that lack interest to joe publici suspect the cup was popularised by tv coverage, and like so many other sports when skycame along and offered more exciting alternatives its days were numberedmaybe they can go down cricket lines and have a 20 minutes a half tournamentwith 7 players a team and music blasting out every 5 minutes to drive the old fogies away

Yeah. But dangle a carrot from the very start, and clubs might take it far more seriously.

they only come out for finals

indeed, i cant argue unless its given a go



i suspect a champions league place would galvanize the top teams to play their best teams,

That's also the problem donny. The big teams already dominate it anyway because their reserves are better than other team's reserves. But the competition is nearly on a life support machine.

The top teams were the ones fielding strong teams, the likes of City, Liverpool and Chelsea all had good teams out, its the rest of the league that are treating the competition with utter contempt.

Sunderland took 9k away to Man Utd so the money thing doesn't wash for me. Especially as presumably there were cut price tickets. Even more strange was how empty their stadium was for the home leg semi

Poyet is doing a decent job there, the fans should get behind their team.

Why should the fans spend their money when its obvious the manager doesn't want to be in this competition?

they had strong teams out cos they were playing each other




darlo

i suspect it will continue to lose support, it has lost its street cred ,

maybe losing the fa cup will allow the big teams to pish off to play more european games,
and a cup for other teams can flourish under a new name and with multi free tv coverage

who knows, but its got to be worth trying something




i saw a game today between two teams in blue, 30 minutes of that was enough for me

what must casual veiwers have thought


and a feckin mango coloured ball ....jeez

No-ones mentioned it was Sunderland's 8th home game of the year.

More than high-flyers Chelsea and Tottenham put together.
An expensive outlay in the 6 weeks after Christmas period
for an area going through tough financial times

poppy, had it been a league game there would have been 40 k

its rumoured that there are 28 k season ticket holders

there must be an element of fans, not just those from sunderland, being fed up
of the lack of magic of this cup at early stages

part time club,part time supporters.