FA Cup third round: Chelsea v Morecambe, Crawley v Leeds and more – live!

I doubt I’m the only nerd reminded of this FA Cup classic by the name of the Portsmouth keeper.

Bristol City: Bentley, Mariappa, Kalas, Mawson, Rowe, Semenyo, Nagy, Bakinson, Adelakun, Martin, Diedhiou. Subs: O’Leary, Vyner, Moore, Towler, Edwards O, Massengo, Pearson, Wells, Bell.

Portsmouth: MacGillivray, Johnson, Raggett, Micolaisen, Brown, Naylor, Cannon, Harness, Williams, Jacobs, Marquis. Subs: Turnbull, Bolton, Mnoga, Downing, Whatmough, Close, Morris, Harrison, Hiwula.

Yes, that’s right – Cheltenham have a Bowry and Mansfield have a Bowery, presumably in homage to the iconic Manhattan hotel. In FA Cup parlance, I believe that’s “ironic”, on which point, did you know that Trevor Brooking didn’t get many with ’is ’ead but scored the winner in the 1980 final with a header? Trusay.

Cheltenham Town: Griffiths, Raglan, Tozer, Boyle, Blair, Hussey, Thomas, Chapman, May, Lloyd, Williams. Subs: Harris, Long, Bowry, Clements, Addai, Freestone, Azaz, Campbell.

Mansfield Town: Stech, O’Keefe, Rawson, Sweeney, Benning, Lapslie, Maris, Charsley, McLaughlin, Reid, Bowery. Subs: Stone, Menayese, Cook, O’Driscoll, Clarke J.

Barnsley: Collins, Brittain, Sollbauer, Helik, Andersen, Styles, Mowatt, Kane, Frieset, Chaplin, Woodrow. Subs: Walton, Williams J, Oduor, Palmer, Sibbick, Schmidt, Adeboyejo, Thomas.

Tranmere Rovers: Davies, O’Connor, Monthe, Ray, Ridehalgh, Spearing, Lewis, Khan, Woolery, Ferrier, Vaughan. Subs: Murphy, Corey, Blackett-Taylor, Ellis, Morris, Nugent, Banks, Burton, Hayde.

Man City: Steffen, Cancelo, Dias, Walker, Mendy, Rodrigo, Mahrez, De Bruyne, Foden, Bernardo, Jesus. Subs: Ederson, Stones, Gundogan, Fernandinho, Zinchenko, Delap, Harwood-Bellis, Nmecha, Mbete.

Birmingham City: Prieto, Colin, Clarke-Salter, San José, Friend, Sunjic, Kieftenbeld, Sanchez, Toral, Leko, Hogan. Subs: Etheridge, Pedersen, Dean, Dacres-Cogley, Roberts, Clayton, McGree, Bela, Jutkiewicz.

Chelsea: Kepa, Azpilicueta, Zouma, Rudiger, Emerson, Mount, Gilmour, Havertz, Ziyech, Werner, Hudson-Odoi. Subs: Caballero, Jorginho, Abraham, Pulisic, Tomori, Kovacic, Giroud, Chilwell, Anjorin.

Morecambe: Halstead, Hendrie, Knight-Percvial, Davis, Cooney, Songo’o, Wildig, Phillips, Slew, Stockton, Mendes Gomes. Subs: Turner, Mellor, Diagourage, Kenyon, Lyons, O’Sullivan, Leitch-Smith, McAlinden, Gibson.

For the eagle-eyed: yes, Hessenthaler is related to Hessenthaler. Playing today is Jake, the son of Andy. Here he is scoring for Watford against Swindon in 1995.

Crawley Town: Morris, Francomb, Craig, Tunnicliffe, Dallison, Tsaroulla, Powell, Hessenthaler, Matthews, Nadesan, Nichols. Subs: Nelson, McNerney, Doherty, M Wright, Davies, J Wright, Frost, Galach, Watters.

Leeds United: Casilla, Davis, Struijk, Cooper, Alioski, Phillips, Shackleton, Hernandez, Poveda, Costa, Rodrigo. Subs: Caprile, Huggins, Jenkins, Casey, Harrison, Raphinha, Greenwood.

This coverage is meant to be unbiased and impartial so I apologise for the slight to journalistic integrity, but: I love the FA Cup. Whatever people try to tell us, football remains a simple game and it remains a simple competition which has spent 139 years giving people some of the greatest moments, days and times of their lives. Bill Shankly, Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger all loved it, and if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for the rest of us.

But like all of us, it relies on its

drawers
draws for support, and this year’s third-round version has not been kind. We’ve seen decent results for Chorley against Derby, Blackpool against West Brom and Doncaster at Blackburn, along with close shaves for Burnley, Sheffield United and Arsenal, but we’ve not yet had anything incendiary and if we’re being real, that’s unlikely to happen this afternoon either.

You never know though, and even if we see nothing great we’re seeing something, as well as investing in the potential greatness of the coming rounds which we can’t fully appreciate unless we were there from the start. So let’s dig in to:

Barnsley v Tranmere Rovers
Bristol City v Portsmouth
Chelsea v Morecambe
Cheltenham Town v Mansfield Town
Crawley Town v Leeds United
Manchester City v Birmingham City

Kick-offs – or should that be kicks-off: 1.30pm GMT