In premier league terms just over a hundred grand is neither here nor there really, of course to the majority of championship clubs it is, and the lower you go the more welcome that figure becomes. Todays game comes with the aforementioned prize money going to the winners, and from the third round onwards there is no losers prize fund.
It’s go for it time.
The swans will be looking slightly different today in the way they line up, we could expect a change in goal with Andy Fisher coming in for Steven Benda, but too many changes and it’s a bit like throwing away the money. Robins boss Nigel Pearson knows that for sure. "I accept that there is a lot more pressure on me but that’s football management for you. I’m possibly at the weakest point that I’ve been in since I’ve been at the club but conversely and rather ironically, the club is in its strongest position since I’ve been at the club so make of that what you will. It’s a part of football management. Pressure is a part of it. Criticism is a part of it. What you have to do is just make sure it doesn’t affect how you prepare the players because it’s about the players on a matchday. I hope we can provide our fans with a win for them to get them into a more optimistic frame of mind. We hope that our fans get behind the team. I understand the frustrations, of course I do, but my job is so to keep trying to do what I’ve been brought in to do and that is to change quite a few things but I fully accept we need to win more games. It’s as simple as thatâ€
Pearson won’t be making many changes if any, he has a minimum of four players ruled out injured, Tomas Kalas, Kane Wilson, Ayman Benarous and Han-Noah Massengo. He may well call on Chris Martin for this one who hasn’t played for a while. Both clubs will name nine substitutes. We will most certainly see academy players from both sides on the bench.
Win this game and the robins or swans will feature in the fourth round draw which will take place just after 4pm today, plus the chance of more prize money, TV coverage and of course the focus of the country.
The swans may have to look for the experience of Joe Allen in this one but he has seen quite a few minutes of late. Reflecting on the cup Joe recalls. "My first experience of the cup was Sheffield United away all those years ago. ( Swansea won 3-0 ) I didn’t get on the pitch, but as a sixteen year-old being on the bench in that sort of situation and being a part of it was a huge boost for me. It gave me a taste of what a football career was like and gave me an extra bit of motivation to make it in the game. I’ve been fortunate to have a pretty long career, but that remains a very fond memory of mine. On the other side, one of the disappointments in the cup was losing a semi-final at Wembley with Liverpool. That was a great chance to go through to the final. We went 1-0 up against Aston Villa, but they turned it around. It was disappointing to get to that stage and not go one step further. Other than that, it has been a mixed bagâ€
The financials behind the cup are below.
The game kicks off at 12.30pm and is a available watch LIVE on ESPN + in the USA.
Team news later.