The FA Cup focus is back on Tuesday as Blackburn plays host to Newcastle in the Fifth Round.
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Tuesday Night Tussle
While the visitors may have to use the road to Wembley as their only path back to European football.
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Although the FA Cup and its additional matches can be considered a nuisance to teams at times, those feelings tend to dissipate when a Fifth Round clash is scheduled and for both Blackburn and Newcastle, the thought of a distraction from league matters seems a rather tempting one.
Which is where Tuesday night comes along and with it posing Championship hosts versus Premier League visitors, this has all the hallmarks of a proper cup tie. Two northern powerhouses who have had better days, two clubs that would love to complete the road to Wembley.
Two clubs that are also failing to find anything in the way of consistency in their respective divisions and with Blackburn recently sacking previous manager Jon Dahl Tomasson and replacing him with John Eustace, his ultimate task is to keep Rovers in the second tier.
Since taking the managerial reins at Ewood Park, Eustace has failed to register a league win in four attempts. In fairness, his new charges have drawn their last three but at the same time, the Championship relegation battle is more than willing to bruise them if this form continues.
A 1-1 draw at home to Norwich on Saturday was certainly a spirited performance and had there be slightly more in the way of cutting edge, then this game could and arguably should have been Blackburn’s first win under their current boss.
However, a draw is logged in the history books, and it is one point more than Newcastle collected at the weekend. A 4-1 reverse at Arsenal has applied pressure on the shoulders of Eddie Howe, it has also dumped the Magpies out of the European places.
Not what either Howe or the team needs after last season’s incredible surge up the table and now that the support and perhaps more importantly the club owners have had a taste of mixing it with the European elite, having nothing on your plate in terms of continental football will not be allowed.
Admittedly there is a substantial amount of mitigating circumstance as far as Howe is concerned and with an injury list never showing any signs of shortening, there is a constant sense of one step forward and two steps back in terms of overall performance.
Now though, Newcastle will want to take a step forward in terms of FA Cup progress and as the battle for seventh place in the Premier League intensifies, winning the most prestigious knockout competition in the world may be the best way to get them back into Europe.
But now it is time for the first of my two tips and although Newcastle may view this as the best route to Europe. I think this route is going to be blocked off. What better way for Blackburn to finally deliver under John Eustace than by winning in 90 minutes at odds of 19/4.
In addition to this, there is only one man to talk about when it comes to goals and that is Sammie Szmodics. The 28-year-old has scored 23 goals in all competitions and with that form, backing him to open the scoring at 9/1 seems incredibly good value to me.
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