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FA Cup fourth round: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Will Daniel Sturridge get a chance to regain his verve? Will Ranieri fine-tune for a relegation battle? Will Ravel Morrison return to Old Trafford?A clutch of (fool)hardy Lincoln City fans queued through Wednesday night in sub-zero temperatures in order to get their gloved hands on the last tickets for their club’s biggest and indeed only fourth-round FA Cup tie since 1976. Those fans were evidently not discouraged by the fact that the National League leaders had suffered their heaviest defeat of the season the previous night, when they were beaten 3-0 by Barrow, whose rugged approach on a treacherous pitch fairly knocked Danny Cowley’s men out of their impish stride. The Championship leaders, Brighton, will probably not resort to such...

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FA Cup retains its charm in more modest surroundings | Sean Ingle

For clubs lower down the league pyramid, the FA Cup can still provide the magical feeling of football for football’s sakeWhat value does a lower-league football club provide to a small town? It was something to mull over on Saturday morning during a scenic ramble from Merstham train station to the town’s football ground for the club’s first round FA Cup tie against Oxford United. The previous day I had spoken to Richard Baxter, the club’s secretary, who happens to be my sister-in-law’s father. “Many people who live in the town still don’t know where the club is,” he sighed. The size of the 1,920 crowd, 10 times the normal gate, suggested quite a few had decided their local side...

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