Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Carlisle vs Cardiff

Carlisle vs Cardiff:Reading will have another home tie in this season’s FA Cup - if they can get past Blackpool of course. The Royals have been drawn to take on either Cardiff City or Carlisle United in the fourth round at the Madejski Stadium, which they’ll do on the weekend of January 25 should we win the replay in Lancashire next week.


January 25 is at the moment set aside for Reading to play Bristol City at home, so that contest will have to be rearranged if the Royals get into the fourth round. Add in the third-round replay, and a potential one in the fourth round, and Mark Bowen may soon have plenty more midweek matches to plan for.


Reading are due to play Cardiff City away from home on January 31, so - if the fixtures fall in a certain way - we could end up playing them three times in a few weeks. Although midweek trips to Cardiff can be a decent enough occasion, the potential prospect of heading up to Carlisle on a Tuesday night really sets apart the men from the boys.


As it happens, the Royals narrowly avoided a trip to Carlisle only two seasons ago. When Reading were involved in a cup replay against Stevenage at the Mad Stad, Sheffield Wednesday took on Carlisle. Had the Owls lost that day, we would have played United in the cup.