FA Trophy facts + Wednesdays team

Did some extra data digging last night...  

Second Round Proper      Saturday 15 December 2012 6 days before crucial Wrexham home game !
Third Round Proper      Saturday 12 January 2013 Same date as Nuneaton, Can we play the 1st team in both games on the same day ?  
Fourth Round Proper      Saturday 26 January 2013 Same date as Cambridge (see above !)
Semi Final 1/2           Saturday 16/23 February 2013 Same date as Ebbsfleet/Woking
Final                        Sunday 24 March 2013 - 1 day after we play Forest Green away.

Oh right, guess it'll be rearranged near our potentially crucial run-in lodged somewhere between Southport, Luton & Newport instead ?!

Here's the prize money...

1st round win      £5K
2nd round win     1st round + another grand
3rd round win     2nd round + another grand
4th round win     3rd round + another grand
Semi win       4th round + another 8 grand
Final Losers     Semi win + another 9 grand
Final winners     Semi win + another 34 grand.

But tell you what, forget the extra 6 potential "1st team" games, fatigue factor and lack of prizemoney (relatively) with no guarantees of even getting it anyway.

Let's just keep our fringe players frozen out in the cold but THEN call upon them when we've potentially picked up enough fatigue, injuries, suspensions from the Trophy instead !?!  

DID YOU KNOW...? (see tashee does he's just mentioned it)

After going 22 games unbeaten in all competitions last season, Town's promotion started to fall away immediately after the 1-0 defeat to York in the FA Trophy Quarter Final at Blundell Park with them only winning 3 of 14 remaining BSP games ?

http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?page=1112/index

Is that co-incidence ?
Possibly but jeez, are we willing to risk it AGAIN ?  
Said myself I thought we were looking slightly laboured towards the end of last season MONTHS ago but didn't realise this until I looked !  

Play to win yes.
But not at ANY possible cost to our promotion chances !?

I've no idea whether it's players to blame for today or what (sorry didn't fancy the cold), but with all due respect, can someone out there kindly get a grip anyway please ?
If I need to spell it out, please let's please stop taking unneccessary risks and field a fringe/2nd string side on Wednesday ?

Oh if I may...
Please bear in mind too, if you vote "Mix of 1st team and reserves" we might still be asking some 1st team players to play a 3rd game(Ebbsfleet) in only 8 days.

Interesting analysis that we fell away last season after losing at home to York in the Trophy.  A 22 game unbeaten run has to run out of steam some time.

Another view to consider is that York never looked back after that Trophy win.  

I like league and cup success.  The 2 can feed off each other.  It is risky to put all your eggs in one basket.   We have already failed in the FA Cup.

York managed to win the FAT and get promotion in the playoff final.  Plenty of rearranged and extra games for them, including winning at Blundell Park in both games. Winning habits are winning habits and build confidence, momentum and success.    We just do not do this (since 1997/9.  When we emulated York and had 2 good runs in the FA Cup and League Cup.

Crawley have had 2 promotions with 2 FA Cup 5th round appearances. They also earned a lot of dosh.

There's no guarantee that losing on Wednesday would help our league form. Winning breeds winning, or something.

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

Another view to consider is that York never looked back after that Trophy win.

True but they had a bigger squad as Hurst mentioned on MP.  
He also talked about the possibility of getting players in later but personally I don't really understand it.
I mean again, what's the point except chasing that Wembley dream ?!
And would we just be bringing in players (presumably cold or new too) for that if the league is still in the mix ?
Not convinced what it is we're trying to achieve.
If only because how much are we gonna spend bringing in these players compared to how much we're gonna be potentially earning from the Trophy ?

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

I like league and cup success.  The 2 can feed off each other.  It is risky to put all your eggs in one basket.   We have already failed in the FA Cup.

Possibly.
Or you could argue you could chase 2 prizes on offer and the knock on effects of one might affect the other meaning you end coming away with neither.

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

Winning habits are winning habits and build confidence, momentum and success.

What does that actually mean in terms of team selection though ?
I appreciate the potential importance of momentum but facts are two home defeats were followed by a 5-1 and a 3-0 followed by a 0-0 !

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

We just do not do this (since 1997/9.  When we emulated York and had 2 good runs in the FA Cup and League Cup.

Well we did ok for 22 games last year ?
Anyway fair enough but in 2012 we tailed off after a run in the Trophy too.
Equals pequals as far as I'm concerned.

Quoted from TownSNAFU5

Crawley have had 2 promotions with 2 FA Cup 5th round appearances. They also earned a lot of dosh.

Is it REALLY fair to compare the 5th round of the FACup and a trip to Old Trafford with the 1st round of the FA Trophy though ?

Also, it's all well and good saying "Winning is a habit" likes it's bound to happen, but events today prove nothing is ever guaranteed !

Quoted from Abdul19

There's no guarantee that losing on Wednesday would help our league form. Winning breeds winning, or something.

Who's talking about losing though ?

And why can't the reserves win anyway ?
No-one ever answers that one...
You don't hear Fergie coming out with a load of cliches when he takes his reserve side to win at Wigan !
No comparisons just making a point it's entirely possible.
Especially if Bradford can go to Wigan and win in the League cup too !

And what team did we put out when we lost to Chasetown and Bath ? Wasn't the reserves !
In fact you might argue Chasetown was the start of the cracks and pressure really cranking up on Woods after the outcry.  
Fact was I was the only one who suggested playing the reserves and tried to give him that "get out of jail free" card.

Whether the reserves win or not, one things for sure, it's gonna help their fitness, general competition for places etc.
If we're asking the same 11 to play 46 + 6 = 52 games (give or take) I personally wouldn't be suprised if we ran out of steam near the end.
You say it's bound to come to an end sooner or later TownSNAFU5 but then how can we do both ?
Surely the fact is less games you play, less tired you generally are and less chance there is of coming a cropper ? (if it's a smaller squad see above !).

I'm actually with you on this 80's. I'd have played the majority of fringe players today.

I actually don't care much at all for the Trophy. I'll care for it even less if the replay cannot go ahead on Wednesday because of the bad weather looming large for that part of the country and the game takes precedence over one of our upcoming league fixtures.

Judging by the fleeting performances today though by some of the reserves I'll not be backing Town to win

What reserves?  unless you include the benched players each week, do we even have a second 11 players? We only have one extra fullback, with Colbeck injured only one other winger, unless you include Artus, and then we have no spare central midfielders.

So unless you start including youth players some first team players will have to play in all games anyway. What does that say to the players who are dropped to play the so called reserves yet other first teamers are getting more games?

Said it before, winning breeds confidence. You say after we lost to York we then went on a bad run, what does that tell you? If we hadn't have lost would our run have come to an end because of fatigue? who knows but I'd argue it wouldn't have.

Once we lost, we lost confidence and our run came to an end, you say it was down to fatigue. York didn't seem fatigued (ok they may have had a bigger squad than we have now, but how many of their players played in both league and trophy?)

Also Stevenage won the league and got to the trophy final in the same season. In 1998 some of our players played over 60 games in a season and it didn't stop us getting promotion.

I don't care about the trophy that much, it only becomes worthwhile if you get to the final really and even playing your best side every game its no guarantee. Apparently before today we were 7/1 favourites with Blue Square to win the trophy. Why not try and win something and have a day out at Wembley when were favourites. Once were back in the league how often will we be favourites to win a trophy?

Just because I'm not bothered if we get knocked out dosn't mean I think they should field a weakened side and not care about winning.

I certainly don't think it looks good or gives players confidence if we lose to a team 2 leagues below us, even if it is a weakened side, what if we played the reserves today and lost? then in a couple of weeks some of those reserves have to play in the league due to injuries/suspensions? Fair enough if we end up getting knocked out like last year to someone near our level. But not getting to the next round to a team like Buxton (no offence) even with the reserves is not exceptable really.

Finally this years final is in March, not May like last year, therefore the trophy can be done and dusted long before the final and most important 5 games of our season, not in the middle of them.

Difficult for me to judge really barra, slightly shamefully I wimped out and stayed in out the cold today.

tbh I've a feeling we might win if only because I'd find it difficult to imagine much less vooommmfff in the performance (that it sounded like) but who knows.

If we did play the reserves and lost think some might think "Oh well we were bound to lose" but then again a few posters on here seemed fairly sure we'd win today too.
So who knows but whilst nothing can ever be proven, I'd guess it would be a classic case of "confirmation bias".

Not saying we shouldn't have more chance of a win putting out the 1st team but judging by today it's debatable (but more importantly a lot riskier ?) too ?
tbf the initial £5K would be nice so I'd hope the reserves (or anyone) might be keen to prove a point if they were given the nod.
But in any case, think there's other factors that extends furthers than win or lose.

But let's think the scenarios though....

We keep our best team they win: Great ! But how tired will they be for Saturday ?
We keep our best team they lose ! Now what do we do for Ebbsfleet ? Play the reserves ?!!

tbh in hindsight it's probably a good job Buxton missed that header cos if we were out, we might be fearing the worst for Saturday ? (that said see below...)

We play the reserves they win: Hopefully we'll have a few bright sparks possibly pushing the competition for a place.
We play the reserves they lose: So we go back to the 1st team again and cross our fingers then feeling slightly better (or more motivated)  if only cos they've had a few days more rest (and extra training) ?

Interested to hear people thoughts on this really...

Tbh it's not a great situation by any means but perhaps in hindsight IN A WAY it's better we DID play the 1st team and drew if only cos it gives us things to work on and rectify ?
Sure none of us would have liked to have seen that performance vs Ebbsfleet !
Though would that fixture have been a different kettle of fish ? (possibly if the players were e,g, "coasting" today ?).
No idea wasn't there and only guessing, you tell me !

cod try the "Your team for Buxton" thread - plenty of different "reserve" options on there !

When you say "how many of their players played in both league and trophy?", you're suggesting not many ?
In that case isn't that exactly the same principle as having 2 different teams i.e 1 for the league and 1 for the trophy (i.e. the reserves/bakups ?)

Or are you thinking of a mix and match team of 1st team and reserve players ?

God this thread has even bored me ! (for now)
I'm off to watch MOTD and catch you all later...