FA Cup FA Cup - Gameweek 09/01/2026 - 13/01/2026

Thy haven’t been a “top ten prem side” for long though have they? In fact I can remember playing them very recently in both the championship and league one, plus I can also remember a Netflix documentary where they were not very good in both the above mentioned divisions. Are we supposed to just forget about what we we watched before this season?
 
Any other football fans trying to tell us we should be excited about this one are coming at it from a Premier League-centric viewpoint. Just because Sunderland are now in the top division doesn't mean they are a different football club to the one we played last season, or numerous seasons in recent memory. Conversely, the first time we played them in League One recently was much more exciting, as we hadn't played them for a while.

It depends what you want from the cup, I think most proper fans want a home draw against a beatable team first and foremost, and/or a tie against a big team who you haven't played for a while. Everyone else is always going to be a bit underwhelming. I would have even been a bit disappointed with Man City, having played them a few times in cups in recent years too. Why anyone else cares what Oxford fans think of their cup draw is a mystery to me.

If we'd drawn Shrewsbury away and they'd complained about it being a boring draw, it wouldn't bother me, and I'd probably understand why, even though we're currently two leagues above them (I imagine Milton Keynes felt the same way too).
 
Royalstandard74 said:
What an anti climax, the least glamorous premiereship team we could’ve had.
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That's a bit harsh, when Brighton, Brentford, Burnley, Fulham etc are still in the draw. I get that we have played Sunderland a lot recently, but they are a big club. Our game at SoL last year had the fourth highest league attendance we have ever played in front of - the only bigger league turnouts for games against Us have been at Old Trafford and Anfield. They are top half of the PL with an average attendance of 46k+

I'm not one to get excited by a home tie - the Cup for me is about getting to visit grounds we wouldn't otherwise go to. But if it weren't for the fact that we have been in the same league as Sunderland for 5 of the last 7 seasons, this would be a pretty glamorous tie for Us.
 
To me it's a decent draw not so much because they're in the PL but because they're a wholehearted sort of club and we usually have good games against them. I'd regard home to Burnley as a boring one though.
 
Kernow Yellow said:
That's a bit harsh, when Brighton, Brentford, Burnley, Fulham etc are still in the draw. I get that we have played Sunderland a lot recently, but they are a big club. Our game at SoL last year had the fourth highest league attendance we have ever played in front of - the only bigger league turnouts for games against Us have been at Old Trafford and Anfield. They are top half of the PL with an average attendance of 46k+

I'm not one to get excited by a home tie - the Cup for me is about getting to visit grounds we wouldn't otherwise go to. But if it weren't for the fact that we have been in the same league as Sunderland for 5 of the last 7 seasons, this would be a pretty glamorous tie for Us.
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Fulham would have been good. A team we rarely play.
 
OnlyOneUnited said:
Any other football fans trying to tell us we should be excited about this one are coming at it from a Premier League-centric viewpoint. Just because Sunderland are now in the top division doesn't mean they are a different football club to the one we played last season, or numerous seasons in recent memory. Conversely, the first time we played them in League One recently was much more exciting, as we hadn't played them for a while.

It depends what you want from the cup, I think most proper fans want a home draw against a beatable team first and foremost, and/or a tie against a big team who you haven't played for a while. Everyone else is always going to be a bit underwhelming. I would have even been a bit disappointed with Man City, having played them a few times in cups in recent years too. Why anyone else cares what Oxford fans think of their cup draw is a mystery to me.

If we'd drawn Shrewsbury away and they'd complained about it being a boring draw, it wouldn't bother me, and I'd probably understand why, even though we're currently two leagues above them (I imagine Milton Keynes felt the same way too).
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proper fans??? - All fans are proper fans!

What I want is too go as far as poss and raise revenues or get to europe -

Sunderland are a very different team to the one we played previously
 
It is what it is but apart from this seasons current place, which could be lower by the time we play them, they have only finished in the top 10 in the top flight once in a quarter of a century, spent 4 seasons in the 3rd tier since then. In fact for most of my life Sunderland have been a yo yo club, spending a lot of time outside the top or fighting to stay up, considering I am 47 I think it shows the way Sunderland perceive themselves is not the reality of how the rest of the country does, its not like we have drawn Arsenal or Liverpool, we have got a cup game against a side we played a league game against less than a year ago.
 
Marked Ox said:
Fulham would have been good. A team we rarely play.
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Fulham away - absolutely. That would have been just about the perfect draw. Fulham at home on the other hand could not be described as exciting or glamorous. Sunderland are a MUCH bigger club.
 
Kernow Yellow said:
Fulham away - absolutely. That would have been just about the perfect draw. Fulham at home on the other hand could not be described as exciting or glamorous. Sunderland are a MUCH bigger club.
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But have won about as much in the last 40 years as them.

I think its two problems, we have played Sunderland very recently and that Sunderland have been s**t (for a big club) for ages, not really a glamorous fixture. If they want clubs to get excited about drawing them in the cup they need to be a lot more successful than a couple of 7th place finishes and a cup final loss in 40 years.

I saw a table that had Sunderland ranked 10th in the all time English football ratings, trouble is its nearly all based of pre WW2 that they are that high, even middle aged men like my self's parents were not born until the 50s, not exactly a lot of footage of their glory days.
 
My Sunderland supporting brother in law has already told me we'll be missing a trick if we don't put up a temporary stand for their visit...
 
BicesterU said:
My Sunderland supporting brother in law has already told me we'll be missing a trick if we don't put up a temporary stand for their visit...
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I think we have been missing that trick for a long time now. So many arguments both for and against. My main one is you don’t put your opponent’s fans directly behind any goal and these days lots of clubs avoid it. Newcastle is probably one of the best examples of “be seen and not heard.”

However the best atmospheres at grounds were when it was always almost a given back in the day as an away fan you would be standing behind the goal. Getting soaking wet and maybe only a couple of hundred away fans there but sucking the ball into the net at every opportunity.
 
Kernow Yellow said:
Fulham away - absolutely. That would have been just about the perfect draw. Fulham at home on the other hand could not be described as exciting or glamorous. Sunderland are a MUCH bigger club.
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But remember……….

You have to fly from Newcastle to get to Spain
You have to fly from Newcastle to get to Spain
You have to fly from Newcastle to get to Spain
Sunderland’s a massive club!
Are they f**k

They got adults for a fiver and kids for free.
They got adults for a fiver and kids for free
They got adults for a fiver and kids for free.
Sunderland’s a massive club
Are they f**k

You get a hot dog sausage in a burger bun
You get a hot dog sausage in a burger bun
You get a hot dog sausage in a burger bun
Sunderland’s a massive club
Are they f**k

You get a free season ticket with a happy meal
You get a free season ticket with a happy meal
You get a free season ticket with a happy meal
Sunderland’s a massive club
Are they f**k
 
BicesterU said:
My Sunderland supporting brother in law has already told me we'll be missing a trick if we don't put up a temporary stand for their visit...
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Should've expanded on this. He told me we'd be missing a trick, I explained Kassam is a money-grabbing ba$tard who'd charge us twice as much as we'd make, whatever that amount might be.
 
holdsteady said:
But have won about as much in the last 40 years as them.

I think its two problems, we have played Sunderland very recently and that Sunderland have been s**t (for a big club) for ages, not really a glamorous fixture. If they want clubs to get excited about drawing them in the cup they need to be a lot more successful than a couple of 7th place finishes and a cup final loss in 40 years.

I saw a table that had Sunderland ranked 10th in the all time English football ratings, trouble is its nearly all based of pre WW2 that they are that high, even middle aged men like my self's parents were not born until the 50s, not exactly a lot of footage of their glory days.
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Yeah I get that. The fact that we've played them a lot recently in particular. Don't get me wrong, I'm not massively excited by the draw at all. As I said, I would prefer an away game somewhere I haven't been before. I just took issue with someone saying they were the least glamorous PL club we could have drawn. I think there is some anti-Northern bias/blindness to reality being shown here.

We have been up and down through the divisions playing at every big club and ground (apart from a few new ones). As equals, in league matches. Of the 20 biggest crowds we have ever played in front of (excluding at Wembley), five of them were at Sunderland - both Roker Park and SoL. All for league matches outside the top flight. The only other clubs that feature as regularly on that list are Man Utd and Liverpool. No-one else.

So yes, I agree that Sunderland aren't some giant of the game when judged by results or trophies in living memory. But as a fan base and a club with history they are right up there. I can't believe anyone would be more excited to host Fulham's Johnny-come-lately supporters who probably wouldn't even sell out their allocation (or make any noise) despite being barely 50 miles from us. I don't even consider Fulham (or Brentford or Bournemouth for that matter) to be a bigger club than Us. Let alone one of the biggest in the country.
 
Kernow Yellow said:
Yeah I get that. The fact that we've played them a lot recently in particular. Don't get me wrong, I'm not massively excited by the draw at all. As I said, I would prefer an away game somewhere I haven't been before. I just took issue with someone saying they were the least glamorous PL club we could have drawn. I think there is some anti-Northern bias/blindness to reality being shown here.

We have been up and down through the divisions playing at every big club and ground (apart from a few new ones). As equals, in league matches. Of the 20 biggest crowds we have ever played in front of (excluding at Wembley), five of them were at Sunderland - both Roker Park and SoL. All for league matches outside the top flight. The only other clubs that feature as regularly on that list are Man Utd and Liverpool. No-one else.

So yes, I agree that Sunderland aren't some giant of the game when judged by results or trophies in living memory. But as a fan base and a club with history they are right up there. I can't believe anyone would be more excited to host Fulham's Johnny-come-lately supporters who probably wouldn't even sell out their allocation (or make any noise) despite being barely 50 miles from us. I don't even consider Fulham (or Brentford or Bournemouth for that matter) to be a bigger club than Us. Let alone one of the biggest in the country.
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We are always going to have a southern bias though, we are in the south, so an away game in London against someone we haven't played in ages is going to be more interesting than a home one against a side we played less than a year ago.

I do get your point, I am not saying Sunderland are not bigger than the clubs mentioned, had we not played them in a while it would be a good draw but those recent fixtures have turned it into a bit of meh draw unfortunately, are own fairly recent upturn has made us harder to please, think it needs to be one of the giants at home or an away with bit of quirk to it get exciting now.
 
Kernow Yellow said:
So yes, I agree that Sunderland aren't some giant of the game when judged by results or trophies in living memory. But as a fan base and a club with history they are right up there. I can't believe anyone would be more excited to host Fulham's Johnny-come-lately supporters who probably wouldn't even sell out their allocation (or make any noise) despite being barely 50 miles from us. I don't even consider Fulham (or Brentford or Bournemouth for that matter) to be a bigger club than Us. Let alone one of the biggest in the country.
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OK, but the bigger issue is familiarity.

We've played Sunderland eleven times in the past eight seasons (five home and aways in the league, and that League Cup 4th Round tie).

We haven't played Fulham since 1989! There's 35 year old fans that weren't born the last time we met!

So whilst Sunderland is undoubtedly the bigger and more historic club with the louder fanbase......a lot of the excitement of the FA Cup is playing games that we don''t normally play (at both ends of the spectrum). And Sunderland isn't that - but Fulham would be.
 
Because we have played up and down the leagues, add in previous cup games, we are probably one of the harder fan bases to satisfy with a cup draw, played most teams.

Once the game gets nearer I will probably get excited, then that will probably be followed by a crashing low when we get hammered, but at the moment, after building myself up yesterday to hope for one of the around 10 exciting draws this one just feels mid.
 
Even in the season when they last won the FA Cup, we beat them 5-1 at home.
 
The Voice Of Reason said:
Nope he's going in summer. A few palace players come.ovet and the manager looked Pi$$ed
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Well then the manager should have played more first team players rather than just the youngsters who were strolling round the park like the next Malcolm Ebiowie.

I can't believe it took him long to get over it, I expect their priorities are survival and then getting back into Europe with last year's cup as an unexpected Brucie bonus.

Guehi is available in this window, maybe a club has agreed to pay the 35m pittance?
 
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