Match Preview: FA Cup Fourth Round: Aston Villa v Bournemouth

Who are we playing?
Bournemouth on Sunday 25th January at 3pm

Where are we playing?
Villa Park

Can I go?
Tickets are dirt cheap and plentiful

Easy to get to?
Should be an absolute doddle, though the trains can be shite on Sundays

Can I watch it on telly?
The game is live on Setanta Ireland, so pubs and house of people with Irish Sky Boxes will have the game. Streams available.

Andy Lochhead scores against the Cherries in front of 48,110

Big game?
We last won the FA Cup in 1957 and we've precious little chance of winning it under Paul Lambert's hapless leadership.

The lack of goals is still a major issue and we had to wait until the early leavers were already heading to their bus stops before we managed the winner against Blackpool in a turgid affair which will have done little to attract punters to this one.

Since then we've had an absolute debacle of a performance against Leicester and while Villa flattered to deceive in a lively twenty minute spell against Liverpool, we still failed to score and deservedly lost the match to boot.

Goals and wins may come eventually but it could all be too little, too late by then.

The attempt by some other Villa websites to galvanise fans into some sort of action may have been deemed to be a failure but it managed to draw the attention of the national media to our sad plight. Protest of the more organic kind may cut the mustard more with Aston Villa's current custodians and a poor home attendance on Sunday will speak volumes.

Frankly though, it's got to be better to be there than getting depressed tuning in to a second rate radio commentary.

Middlemiss

Do the Cherries have any famous fans? 
Really struggling with this one.

There is of course Matt Tong who used to be drummer and backing vocalist for Bloc Party (shrugs). Even more bizarrely dyed-in-the-wool Geordie and TV presenter Jayne Middlemiss claims to support the south coast club. Jayne is a former topless model who can cook, so the ideal woman in the eyes of some...

We've got fiddle playing scruffbox Nigel Kennedy.

So we win.

Who's playing for us?
Gawd knows. We reckon this is a great chance to give exciting new boy Carles Gil a proper run out.

The defence is likely to be unchanged purely through lack of fit players to bring in.

We'd be hugely tempted to give Jack and Callum a run out or at least have them on the bench, but it seems the two young lads aren't enjoying life under our Paul.

Yann Kermorgant

Who's playing for them?
Bournemouth came from a goal down to knock Championship rivals Rotherham out in the last round.

The Cherries made eight changes, but it did not matter as they ran out 5-1 winners with Yann Kermorgant scoring twice as Shaun MacDonald, Junior Stanislas and Ryan Fraser also on target.

it'll be interesting to see their approach this time, but we'd be surprised if they played their best XI.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• Bournemouth have beaten us once while we have 2 wins. There has been 1 draw.

• We've never met Bournemouth in the FA Cup before..

• Last time we played The Cherries at Villa Park, we laboured to a 1-1 draw with a goal from Mark Walters, Villa's 6000th league goal.

• Our last encounter with Bournemouth was at their place and we won 2-1 thanks to goals from Tony Daley and David Platt

Prediction
Going for a 2-0 Bournemouth win.