Football – England – FA Cup 4th Round Replay
Wednesday 5th February 2014 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Preston North End and Nottingham Forest meet again in the replay of their fourth round cup tie at Deepdale on Wednesday night to determine who meets the winner out of Sheffield United and Fulham in the fifth round who play each other on Tuesday night.
Preston secured all three points against lowly Notts County on Saturday when they ran out 2-0 winners to maintain their play-off claims in League One but they now turn their attentions to tonight’s cup replay where they’ll fancy their chances on home turf even against Championship opposition. Preston have already beaten Barnet 6-0, Wycombe Wanderers 1-0, Ipswich Town 3-2 (in the replay at Deepdale), so they won’t fear the visit of Nottingham Forest tonight.
Potential anytime goalscorers for Preston tonight look to be Joe Garner and Craig Davies.
Visitors Nottingham Forest also racked up three points in Saturday’s Championship home match against Yeovil Town 3-1 where they gained revenge for their earlier defeat in the season when they lost at Huish Park. That was Nottingham Forest’s second league win on the trot having previously beaten Watford 4-2 so they’ve been amongst the goals recently.
Forest thrashed Premier League outfit West Ham 5-0 at the City Ground in the third round of the FA Cup to set up this tie with Preston North End which ended in a 0-0 stalemate in their first attempt, but they face a slightly tougher test tonight as they now concede home advantage to League One Preston in the replay.
But when you look at Nottingham Forest’s away performances in all competitions, they’ve failed to score just once in their last fourteen away matches which was a 0-0 draw at Birmingham City in the Championship just before Christmas.
Potential anytime goalscorers for Nottingham Forest are likely to be Simon Cox, Andy Reid, Henri Lansbury and Darius Henderson.
As a side note, I reckon both teams fancy their chances to progress through to the fifth round here tonight so I expect them to be at full strength particularly in their respective attacking departments so I’ll back both teams to find the back of the net here in what could be a 1-1 draw at 90 minutes, and might need extra time or even penalties to decide the fixture.
Pick: Both teams to score @ 1.75 Bet Victor
