Daniel Ballard recently extended his loan spell at Blackpool until the end of the season and the defender is aiming to go on a lengthy run in the FA Cup with the League One side.
Ballard featured for Blackpool against West Bromwich Albion in the third round, with his temporary team ultimately prevailing on penalties.
That victory set up another test against Premier League opposition in the fourth round, with Blackpool to face Brighton & Hove Albion away, which will provide Ballard with another chance to show that he deserves to be playing at a higher level than League One.
Another Arsenal loanee has made it through to the fourth round of the FA Cup, with Tyreece John-Jules’ Doncaster Rovers set to take on West Ham United away.
John-Jules has seen his spell at Doncaster disrupted by injury but he has shown some encouraging signs of late and will be especially determined to get on the scoresheet against Premier League opposition.
If Doncaster manage to cause a shock against West Ham then they will travel to face Liverpool or Manchester United in the fifth round, which would certainly be the highlight of John-Jules’ career so far.
Both Ballard and John-Jules will hope that they can continue to make an impact in the prestigious competition.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Good luck to them.
If they win, they may well be playing against Spurs next round (it’s always the lowest ranked team that Spurs get chosen to play, that’s the rules this year)
We must remember that they are Sp*rs. For all their luck in draws, they have to live with that.
Tottenham Hotspur- Cunts for all eternity.
All things being equal, which of course they hardly ever are in football, I’ve a feeling in my water that we’re destined to meet the Spuds later on in this season’s FA Cup.
That being the case, I hope we destroy them.
We will have had three PL opponents before that, possibly more. They may have had one…
You gotta trust a feeling in your water
LOL. Marine held them from scoring for almost 25 minutes. It made my Sunday so much better. I laughed, I pointed at the TV, I flipped the bird at Mourinho everytime the camera went to his smug face sitting in the unheated 80’s office chair. They did nice things to raise money for Marine, but they are still the Sp*rs.
And they still won’t win a trophy 🙂
Thanks for that Jeorge, I thought that Ballard had a good 90 minutes against West Brom and Clarke did ok for Oldham but sadly Doncaster wasn’t covered on TV but it seems that John Jules played as a centre forward so good experience all round for our youngsters.
I definetely prefer the new approach we are taking of loaning more youngsters out. their are some downsides (they are more unlikely to want to come back to u23s after experiencing men’s footy) but the positives in terms of their personal development and the potential to get increased fees for them when and if they leave makes it worth it.
I think it helps both parties. And beeing on one loan does not mean, you have to go back to U-23. Another loan maybe to a higher league is possible or even moving on permanently or even AFC first team is possible. I would think, that for Clarke/McGuinness and so on, going to League One/Championship would be the next step. And if you impress there, a permanent move somewhere is a real possibility. And then they don’t have to scramble around League 2 or even lower. I think you even see the difference with ESR after Huddersfield. Before the loan,… Read more »
Good luck to Ballard. Hopefully he’ll be another quality trainee to come through the ranks.
Really annoying draws last night. It looks like we’ll be playing Southampton and then Wolves if we get through. That’s 3 Premier League teams in a row. I hope Arteta takes the FA Cup super seriously and plays our strongest teams in those games. The sad fact is that we don’t have much depth of quality in the squad. Another FA Cup win is probably our best chance for glory this season.