Newcastle draw Blackburn in FA Cup 3rd Round

Newcastle have been drawn at home to Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup 3rd Round.

All ties will be played over the weekend of the 7th and 8th of January.

Personally speaking I just can't help but get excited over the FA Cup. Once upon a time it was a great source of success for NUFC but in my lifetime it's been more of a case of disappointment after disappointment. Still, we can win it, right? By that I mean we should be taking it seriously, correct?

The first thing I always do is look for the 'top' teams to see if they've been drawn together, which has happened when you look at the Manchester derby. From a selfish point of view it means that one of them has gone already. The rest all have games which they should win however.

The word should is quite an appropriate word for the FA Cup with it's habit of producing upsets over the years. We should have beaten Hereford. We should have beaten Stevenage last season. You get my point... Anyway, here is the draw in full:

Middlesbrough v Shrewsbury
Nottingham Forest v Leicester City
Manchester City v Manchester United
Dagenham and Redbridge or Walsall v Millwall
Crawley Town v Bristol City
Doncaster Rovers v Sutton United or Notts County
Bristol Rovers v Aston Villa
Tottenham Hotspur v Cheltenham
Sheffield Wednesday v West Ham United
MK Dons v Queens Park Rangers
Hull City v Ipswich Town
Coventry City v Southampton
Brighton v Wrexham
Fulham v Charlton Athletic
Birmingham City v Wolves
Norwich City v Burnley
Arsenal v Leeds United
Derby County v Crystal Palace
Fleetwood or Yeovil v Blackpool
Swindon Town v Wigan Athletic
Barnsley v Swansea City
Chelmsford City or Macclesfield v Bolton Wanderers
Newcastle United v Blackburn Rovers
Everton v Tamworth
Sheffield United v Salisbury City or Grimsby Town
Liverpool v Southend United or Oldham
Gillingham v Stoke City
Chelsea v Portsmouth
Watford v Bradford City
Peterborough United v Sunderland
West Bromwich Albion v Cardiff City
Reading v Stevenage

So Blackburn first for us then. I never like playing them to be honest and the name Graham Fenton still sends shivers down my spine. They have some for of jinx over us that won't just be patched up with that 3-1 win over them at St James' Park earlier on in the season.

However it's a home tie and we should be looking to progress to the 4th Round of the competition in my book.

There's that word should again