Saturday Morning
So, the injury news wasn't quite as bad as feared and, for me at any rate, it's been tempered by the return of Reid and his probable inclusion in today's starting eleven. I never understood why we were farming him out and I hope he never leaves. The news of Muntari possibly coming on loan was extremely warming and I really hope that happens, though he does have a reputation for being a workiticket. As for this afternoon's game, I don't really care too much to be honest but of course I want us to win. The omens are good because as everyone knows we beat Notts County in the 3 rd Round when we won the Cup back in 1973 but how many of you spotted that when the draw was made, we were ball number 37, the year of our other victory? It looks like Colback will be playing too and no doubt several other squad players will get a game too. Maybe we'll see Nos and M'voto in there somewhere? Anyway, Notts County are bound to be going for it but I'm confident that we'll win and I'm getting a 3-1 feeling.

The Match
I tuned into Radio Newcastle feeling relaxed about what the game would bring. Our starting line-up was novel as it included the three South Americans as well as Reid and Colback but the only real surprise was that both Bent and Gyan were leading the line. A fashion surprise was that Angeleri was wearing tights, and his bun of course. County took an early lead in controversial fashion when Mignolet appeared to be fouled and the ball was in the net, though neither the commentators nor the stadium announcer seemed to know who had scored. It was finally credited to Westcarr. At any rate it sounded like there'd been a lot of space in our box before the goal and our play for the rest of the half was disjointed and fruitless. We didn't muster a serious chance till Reid and Gyan combined well around the half-hour mark but County were having much the better of it and shortly afterwards nearly went 2-0 up. Bruce seemed genuinely interested in having a cup-run and if so, I expected Elmo to be introduced before long to give us some zip. The crowd was announced, just over 17,500 maybe 3,000 of whom were County fans, and even taking the current economic situation into account this surely reflected the average fan's interest in this competition. Gyan fluffed a good chance in the dying minutes but it was still 0-1 at the break and I don't think we could argue with that as County had had two other very good chances. If we wanted to avoid defeat, or worse still a midweek replay, we'd have to shake things up a lot for the second-half.

I was surprised that we made no changes and the first ten minutes of the second-half continued in the same vein as we'd left off, with County looking more dangerous and us not getting anything significant together. Thankfully Elmo and Henderson replaced Riveros and Colback around the hour-mark and I could see us winning it. Almost at once we had a very good chance but Steed, as usual, shot wide. A minute or two later Bent headed just wide and our fans were bucked up at last. Bardo replaced Angeleri but time was getting tight and our finishing was still sounding slack. This was exemplified when Bent missed a great headed chance a few minutes later and we were punished when Hughes scored their second despite a great save by Mignolet. With fifteen mutes left we needed a miracle if we wanted to get anything out of the game. Well, we got a penalty with ten minutes left when Reid was fouled and I had a feeling Bent would miss it but he didn't and hope raised its ugly head. Five minutes of added time raised more hope but we continued to waste chances, with Gyan being the main culprit though Bent's header hit the bar at the death, and it finished 1-2.

Notts County deserved to win as, like in the Blackpool game, we didn't take our chances while they took theirs. They were really up for it but we didn't really play effectively for the first hour and then missed chance after chance so what can we expect? I'm not particularly bothered about being knocked out but I certainly hope a few people get their shooting-boots on before next Sunday.

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