English FA CUP
2012-02-19 - Crawley Town vs Stoke City
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: FA Cup 5th Round
Sunday 19 February 2012 - Kick Off 12pm
This game is live on TV
Crawley Town
Crawley Town have moved up the Divisions in recent seasons thanks to being bankrolled by a rich owner who has spared no expenses to get this team into the professional Leagues. They have other priorities, but this is still an important game for a team that reached this stage of the FA Cup last season as a non-League club, only falling in a close loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils are down in 6th place in League Two, but they have a number of games in hand over the majority of their rivals and are only 4 points from the top of the table. Crawley remain the favourites to win the title mainly thanks to their 11-1-2 record at home. The team have beaten Redbridge and Bristol City at home in the FA Cup already this season, while also winning games at Bury and Hull City in the previous four Rounds.
They suffered a 3-0 reverse at Swindon Town in their last outing, that being their first defeat in 7 games in all competitions. Crawley have won 3 in a row here since losing 1-2 to Gillingham, and they have now won 10 of their last 12 home games in all competitions. The home team should have some confidence to cause their Premier League opponents some trouble as they have scored in 12 games in a row at home.
Rene Gilmartin will make his debut in goal for the team as Scott Shearer is injured. Billy Clarke and Karl Hawley are both missing as they are cup-tied.
Stoke City
Stoke City's successes over the last seasons has seen them improve their standing each year and they were finally rewarded with an adventure in Europe this season. However, the limited squad means the Europa League has taken it's toll on the players and that has led to a number of inconsistent performances and they seem to be running on fumes in recent weeks.
The Potters will want to be careful that they are not dragged into a relegation fight in the Premier League, but the FA Cup remains an important competition for them, perhaps more so with the Europa League run looking like it may come to an end this week. They have a solid 4-2-7 away record in the Premier League and have already won away games at Gillingham and Derby County to move through to this tie.
They will come into this fixture having lost 5 of their last 6 games in all competitions, the only exception being the 0-2 win at Derby in the 4th Round of the FA Cup. Stoke have won just 3 of their last 12 games in all competitions, 2 of those in this Cup. The team have lost back to back away games, but they had won 3 of their previous 4 games on their travels before that.
Robert Huth is still serving a domestic suspension, while Dean Whitehead picked up a knock in the 0-1 home loss to Valencia on Thursday night and may miss out.
Head to Head
This will be the first competitive fixture between these two teams.
Prediction
Tony Pulis was very unimpressed that this game had been moved to a 12pm start considering they were in action on Thursday night in Europe, but any tiredness in the squad may have been put aside after Crawley Town's manager Steve Evans made some comments to the media about the Stoke players.
Evans described Stoke as having 'good Championship players' that are only surviving in the Premier League thanks to their manager, and that should surely inspire the players to come out with a point to prove against a side three Divisions below them in the League standings.
Stoke should not be worried about this game becoming physical as it can against lower-League opposition and will feel more than confident in winning this game considering their away results already in the FA Cup. The squad have looked a little tired in recent weeks as all the football they have played is coming back to haunt them, but once again I believe Steve Evans' comments will only make them want to play that much harder.
In saying that, I think Crawley are going to be really up for this game and we saw how well they played against Manchester United at this stage of the competition last season. Now they have the home field advantage and I am sure they are going to cause Stoke some problems, especially considering how out of form they have been in recent weeks.
There haven't been too many draws in this competition since the Third Round this season, but I am going to have go at this game ending in a replay.
The Pick :
Crawley Town 1-1 Stoke City
