FA CUP 3rd ROUND REPLAY -- AFC WIMBLEDON vs SUTTON UNITED

After a very uninspiring 0-0 draw last week at Gander Green Lane home of Sutton United we are fortunate to bring them back to Kingsmeadow for a replay on Tuesday night. With the 4th round draw presenting both sides with the chance to play the mighty Leeds United at home it should add extra incentive not that any should have been required ... this is the FA Cup. Come on guys. 

The BBC have decided to show the Ipswich vs Lincoln replay on Tuesday night and BT Sport will have the Plymouth vs Liverpool match on Wednesday night, so we'll have to make do with huddling around the radio set or tuning into Radio WDON for those that cannot get a ticket to this replay. 

At least the Dons come into this match on the back of a 2-1 win against Oxford whereas Sutton only drew 2-2 with Worthing in their last match.  

We will keep an eye on the game and update later with match news and reaction to the result.

Well how bad can we be, 1-0 up, then a man down, then pulled back to 1-1 and as Sutton continue to press with that man advantage the prospect of a glamour tie against Leeds United begins to fade and then you just knew it would happen 89 mins in 2-1 Sutton. Gutted, but not really surprised. Oh great it's 3-1 now, well done have fun when Leeds arrive hope they don't wreck the place. 
 

KEMPTON PARK RACES 2017 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #1 11th JANUARY

A new year and thus a new start for this regular series of midweek fixtures from Kempton Park. We will aim to improve on last seasons successful year recording bets from the Handicap contests held on the Wednesday nights and the occasional lays too. 

All our results will be recorded to SP and having ended the last year on a profit of +5.91 points we will clear that and reset to zero with something to aim at. 

As always our focus will be on the handicap contests for each meeting but will occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1pt level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds but for the purpose of the results we record to SP.

We will keep up with our occasional lay opportunities of short priced favorites, we only had a few towards the back end of the season that actually won and again will keep these results separately from the handicap figures. 

This week is our first meeting for 2017 and we are expecting a seven race card on offer, where we will be presented with five handicap contests to review following the division of the 6f event at 18:45. Tonight's action will commence at 16:45 with a 7f handicap. 

Below is a link to this evening's race card;

EVENING RACECARD

The going on the polytrack surface is described as Standard to slow once more and the current weather forecast is for a dry evening with a max temperature of about 9C when the meeting gets underway and remain cold but dry during the evening.

Here are our selections for this evening's handicap races;

16:45 -- 7f Handicap.
Very low quality stuff to kick off our 2017 season with, a class 7 handicap worth less than two grand to the winner. Wouldn't normally want to be involved with this but a tentative shout to ERSHAAD [9th 10/3] for who Jo Gordon is a positive jockey booking.

17:45 -- 1m 3f Handicap.
Difficult one here but at least JERSEY BULL [9th 9/1] has shown winning form here back in November and a repeat of that should be enough. Of the reminder SPECULATOR [14th 14/1] was running well last summer and has changed yards, it's possible that one can also run well at a price and a place bet is considered if the price of 14/1 or so can be obtained. 
 
18:45 -- 6f Handicap (Div 1).
The 6f handicap has been divided with 10 declared in each event now, division one can go to top weight BORN TO FINISH [WON 7/4F] who is looking to secure a hat trick of wins across different all weather tracks, a 6lb rise may still not be enough to stop his winning run. 

19:15 -- 6f Handicap (Div 2).
The second division also has 10 runners declared and doesn't look any better, (I do hope that 2017 improves), a race for FLEETING GLIMPSE [6th 9/1] to take advantage of a low handicap mark and might not find many easier to be fair, and we'll try and pair that with FIRESNAKE [7th 10/1]. Both having 7lb claimers on board and maybe that extra advantage can pay dividends.

19:45 -- 1m 4f Amateur Handicap.
The concluding handicap looks interesting despite being an amateur riders affair, fancy SENNOCKIAN STAR [WON 5/1] to win this has not been beaten too far in better events and has a decent jockey too which is a big plus. 

Staked -- 7 points
Returns -- 8.75 points.

Results for tonight - nice start with a couple of winners making a small profit to SP of +1.75 lets see if we can keep ahead for as long as possible.

Lays -- 0/1. 
Got two Lays to kick off our season with tonight
17:15 -- PEPITA W/D 15/8F
18:15 -- PRETEND Won 11/10F.

Alas not the best start to the season with the lays though, one winner albeit short fav, and one withdrawn, well we will try again. 

Our next Wednesday evening meeting at this course will be on 18th January so see you next week.

FA CUP FOURTH ROUND DRAW

This Monday evening we will have the draw for the 4th Round of this season's FA Cup. After AFC Wimbledon's very disappointing 0-0 draw on Saturday with Sutton United we are both still in the hat and maybe a decent tie will mean the team bucks it's ideas up and plays with more passion in the replay next week.

We will update here on Monday night with the details of the 4th round draw while it's being made which will begin shortly after 7pm and transmitted live on BBC 2. Conducting the draw will be former players and previous FA Cup winners Michael Owen and Martin Keown and they will be on hand to perform the draw out of the 'hat'. Hopefully we can get a nice money earning tie against someone like Arsenal (Ball no 20) or Manchester United (3). 

AFC Wimbledon have been allocated ball number 30.

Fourth Round Draw

     TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR  v  WYCOMBE WANDERERS

     DERBY COUNTY  v  LEICESTER CITY

     OXFORD UNITED  v  NEWCASTLE UNITED / BIRMINGHAM

     AFC WIMBLEDON / SUTTON UNITED  v  LEEDS UNITED

     PLYMOUTH ARGYLE / LIVERPOOL  v  WOLVES

     SOUTHAMPTON / NORWICH  v  ARSENAL

     LINCOLN / IPSWICH  v  BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION

     CHELSEA  v  BRENTFORD

     MANCHESTER UNITED  v  WIGAN ATHLETIC

     MILLWALL  v  WATFORD

     ROCHDALE  v  HUDDERSFIELD TOWN

     BURNLEY / SUNDERLAND  v  FLEETWOOD / BRISTOL CITY

     BLACKBURN ROVERS  v  BARNSLEY / BLACKPOOL

     FULHAM  v  HULL

     MIDDLESBROUGH  v  ACCRINGTON STANLEY

     CRYSTAL PALACE / BOLTON WANDERERS  v  MANCHESTER CITY

Ties to be played over the weekend of 27-30 January.

Reaction;

So depending on how the replays turn out it's a home tie against a massive club in Leeds United. Which would be a repeat of one of Wimbledon's previous famous FA Cup exploits when a non league club back in the 1970s. The Dons then managed to hold that monster of a side to a 0-0 draw at Elland Road only to lose 1-0 in the replay back at Plough Lane. 

Or it could be Sutton vs Leeds. We'll see how the replay turns out.