Westfields or Curzon Ashton v Bury or AFC Wimbledon
Macclesfield v Oxford United
Whitehawk or Stourbridge v Northampton
Woking v Accrington Stanley
Lincoln City v Oldham
Sutton United v Cheltenham or Crewe

These are the 6 non league v league ties, with the non league side at home. I am guessing 3 of these 6 will be on TV.

I will predict:

Westfields or Curzon Ashton v Bury or AFC Wimbledon
Sutton United v Cheltenham or Crewe
Whitehawk or Stourbridge v Northampton

I don't think Bolton/Blades should be picked but I think BT will given they are 2 of the bigger clubs playing, if not, it's a shoe in to be on the Sunday on Final Score (and hopefully broadcast internationally for me )

The non-league games should be picked and at least 2 will be

The Curzon Ashton & Stourbridge replay games are down for next Monday, given the international break, BT could put one of those on, saves going moving fixtures because of a Thursday tie.

Yep, think I'd go with that, think the BBC might be tempted to go to Sutton to rekindle memories of their famous win over Coventry in 1989 (one of those games they've shown the goals from quite a lot over the years on FA Cup weekends).

Lincoln v Oldham is arguably the upset waiting to happen given Lincoln are going well and Oldham are struggling this season, but it may miss out on being live on TV as the average man in the street probably still thinks of Lincoln as a Football League club. Think Macclesfield v Oxford may have been in with more of a shout of live coverage if Oxford hadn't been live in the previous round.

Still got an odd feeling one of the live matches could be Bolton v Sheffield United though, not what I'd pick personally but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if it's on.

Dont forget Solihull Moors Vs Yeovil. In my opinion there is much more of a chance of a so called "giant killing" here than any of the other ties you have mentioned!

Sutton also have a 3G pitch which is another talking point

After the Merstham game maybe small club v League One will not appeal to TV as much.

Sutton is Conference v League 2

But that is first round

Wolvesdavid was giving suggestions on R2

If a 3G pitch is a "talking point" worthy of selection for a live match then the barrel is being well and truly scraped.

I do hope we get suggestions from someone this year for potential R3 ties before a single ball has been kicked in R2, that was funny last year

Maidstone United were shown live season before last isn't there's a 3G pitch, If so showing Sutton bar memories of the past, wouldn't be shown

It seems to me that when the television companies are picking which matches to show, they're only interested in chasing a potential "shock" result. The abject mismatch shown on Saturday evening (Merstham vs Oxford) was given the build up that this was a "shock" waiting to happen.... if the phrase "shock result" was used once in the pre match build up it was used a hundred times..... The match finished in a 5 - 0 win for Oxford.

The match was over as a contest as soon as Oxford's first goal went in. The rest of the game was a boring, foregone conclusion.

The television companies have lost their objectivity. They're not looking for the likely best match, they're more concerned with drumming up an audience who might tune in expecting something that can labelled a "giant killing",

The chances of the cameras covering a match live when a real, genuine giant killing takes place are minimal in my opinion. I think they'd do better to just pick a match between two teams who are more equally matched. We might get to see a game that is actually a contest.

Merstham will have done nicely, in financial terms, from having their match televised live. Good for them. But the match selection process is a joke if this is all that is being aimed for.

Good summing Up

So Sutton v League 2 team would be a good option

Rather than a Tier 6( or even 9) side v League One ??

Brackley v Gillingham confirmed for Wednesday 16 November.

http://www.gillinghamfootballclub.co...v-3405464.aspx

First Round replays

Brackley Town v Gillingham

7.45pm, Wed 16 Nov Live on BT Sport

Dover Athletic v Cambridge United

7.45pm, Thu 17 Nov Live on BT Sport

Cambridge United play on Saturday 19th and Tuesday 22nd in the League


Will they accept a 2 day rest or ask for 2 fixtures to move back a day ??

Are you saying then that they should just simply pick the teams nearest each other in the league tables?

If that was the case then you would simply pick the following three matches:


Bolton V Sheff Utd (2)
Charlton V MK Dons (6)
Chesterfield V Wycombe (22)

The number in brackets refers to the number of league positions between the clubs.

I personally think those 3 matches wouldn't really show what the FA Cup is all about.

But that neglects to mention the other matches in the first round that did indeed have teams from the lower leagues beating or holding opposition from a higher division. Yes, Merstham vs Oxford did turn out to be a walkover but there have been many examples of this type of match delivering the goods in recent years, Warrington vs Exeter and Salford vs Notts County being two very recent examples. Some come off, some don't.

Besides, at this stage of the FA Cup, the match itself is only half the story. There's an obvious reason why that match had half an hour build-up but only five minutes' post match. It was so we could hear the story of Merstham, get a feel for the club, put it all in context and hear some interesting stories, plus of course see some professional players slumming it in tiny stadia. At this stage in the FA Cup, showcasing non-league clubs is just as important as showing a good match, if not more so. Maybe the Merstham match itself was a non-event but I was entertained enough by all the interviews and features in the build-up.

I don't really care if the matches in the first round of the FA Cup are especially interesting, I'm interested in this stage of the FA Cup to see the non-league clubs having their moment in the spotlight.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Bolton v Sheff Utd picked, given that both are "big" clubs and are likely to generate a decent(ish) following on TV. Do BBC have first pick this round? If so, this looks like the sort of game they would pick.

The only time the BBC have shown a match involving two league clubs in the first two rounds of the FA Cup was when they showed Oxford vs Swindon in 2002. That is the only time they've done that in the ten seasons they've shown live games from this stage,

Since the BBC have showed coverage of the 1st and 2nd rounds of the FA Cup they have tended to show a non league side at home to a league side.

So no I don't think Bolton v Sheffield United is the type of tie that the BBC will go for.

But do you think a Conference v League 2
Is more attractive to them
Or Conference North v League 1 ??

The BBC have the luxury of being able to put the romance of the FA Cup ahead of purely commercial needs, unlike BT Sport who need to maximise viewing figures. The latter will inevitably look towards the better-supported clubs.

Conference North v League 1 is only three divisions and whilst cup shocks are by their very nature unlikely to happen (you would of course expect the higher league side to win the majority of the time) they are not exactly impossible with a conference north side.

I think the fact that Westfields are the lowest placed team in the Cup, Curzon Ashton v Bury is a local derby, and the fact that AFC Wimbledon are a story all by themselves anyway makes it that tie would be picked.

I think they will wait for replays before picking TV games

At the moment there are so many either or

Also there is a 4 week gap between the rounds rather than 3

Some news leaking out

Woking's FA Cup second round tie against Accrington Stanley will now be played on Sunday December 4.

The match has been put back 24 hours as it has been selected, along with others, for coverage on the BBC’s Final Score show.

Kick-off has been moved to an earlier time of 2pm.

According to the BBC Press Office, the BBC have picked Macclesfield V Oxford as their R2 game on the 2nd December with a 7:55pm kick off.