Key events
Team news: Bournemouth v West Brom
Bournemouth: Arrizabalaga, Hill, Zabarnyi, Huijsen, Soler, Adams, Winterburn, Aarons, Brooks, Kluivert, Ouattara.
Subs: Dennis, Travers, Kerkez, Cook, Jebbison, Semenyo, Akinmboni, Kinsey-Wellings, Rees-Dottin.
West Brom: Wildsmith, Furlong, Holgate, Taylor, Styles, Mowatt, Racic, Fellows, Ahearne-Grant, Diangana, Swift.
Subs: Cann, Frabotta, Heggem, Diakite, Molumby, Johnston, Bostock, Wallace, Cole.
Leicester 0-0 QPR. It’s very misty at the King Power Stadium and from what I can tell not much as happened in the opening six minutes, but with visibility like this who can tell?
The other early kick-offs have all reached full-time, here are the scores:
Birmingham City 2-1 Lincoln City
Bristol City 1-2 Wolves
Middlesbrough 0-1 Blackburn Rovers
We have live updates from the closing stages of Liverpool v Accrington Stanley with Scott Murray here:
Leicester v QPR: Team news
First up we have that familiar 2pm kick-off Saturday kick-off, here are how the sides line up at the King Power:
Leicester: Stolarczyk, Justin, Coady, Kristiansen, Faes, Winks, Soumare, Buonanotte, El Khannous, Mavididi, Vardy.
Subs: Iversen, Okoli, Thomas, Choudhury, Skipp, De Cordova-Reid, McAteer, Ayew, Daka.
QPR: Walsh, Ashby, Edwards, Clarke-Salter, Paal, Varane, Field, Kolli, Madsen, Saito, Chair.
Subs: Nardi, Dunne, Fox, Colback, Dixon-Bonner, Morgan, Smyth, Lloyd, Frey.
Preamble
Perhaps Scottish glam rock band Pilot were not singing about the sunrise over Edinburgh, but the enduring appeal of the FA Cup when they wrote 1975 hit Magic – ‘Ho, ho, ho, it’s magic you know, never believe it’s not so…’
The message is clear, we just have to believe in the magic, never forget to reference it to and then it will survive. Nothing says ‘magic’ quite like a slate of Saturday 3pm games headlined by the Chelsea’s billionaire backups kicking the crap out of the club currently second bottom of the Football League (Morecambe) or Bournemouth v West Brom.
Still, we plod on and look further down the fixture list in search of an upset opportunity. Perhaps Exeter, currently mid-table in League One, can overcome Oxford United, who – remarkably – are currently in the second tier for the first time this millennium. What chance a new manager bounce at Plymouth as they take on Brentford? Seagull pessimism tells me Norwich have a chance against a Brighton team lacking a recognised striker, so there’s that. Nottingham Forest v Luton, the artist formerly known as a Premier League relegation scrap, now looks like a routine win for Nuno’s European hopefuls.
Replays are clearly no longer magic, but extra-time and penalties definitely are, so we might get some of those this afternoon which is – er – depressing fun.
As a seasoned FA Cup third round observer, all of this sarcastic lack of belief in the ‘magic’ will of course prove incorrect and you, lucky reader, will get to follow along an afternoon of shocks with me. Please get in touch with your observations from the cup or the very limited league action (League Two, we see you).
Team news shortly.
