RED versus blue, Eric Cantona against Georgi Kinkladze, Alex Ferguson face to face with Alan Bali whichever way it is approached, tomorrow's Manchester derby at Old Trafford is the tie of the English FA Cup's fifth round. "Let's hope it's the match of the round too," the United manager said yesterday, aware that fear of defeat can turn a potentially epic battle into a war of attrition.
Ferguson anticipates either "a very open game" or "an intense battle", depending on whether City come to make a game of it. Ball, who described it as the biggest game of his managerial career, said "We're going into the lion's den and hopefully we'll tweak its tail."
Ball will be without his captain the suspended Garry Flitcroft whereas United welcome back their skipper, Steve Bruce. Neither development enhances City's prospects of ending a 14 game run without a win over their neighbours dating back to 1989.
Maine Road has waited even longer for silverware since 1976 in fact which is a feeling Aston Villa fans recognise when the Cup comes around. Villa have now gone 39 years without winning the trophy, a strange anomaly given that their tally of seven final victories was once a record, not to mention championship and European Cup successes in the interim.
A trip to Ipswich, a middling First Division outfit, offer's them a better then even chance today of reaching the quarter finals, especially with Dwight York on a hot scoring streak. Even allowing for the Suffolk side's win at Blackburn, over confidence and a pitch that looks as if it recently staged the Horse of the Year Show may prove Villa's worst enemies.
George Burley, the Ipswich manager, may have been seeking to foster complacency in his visitors when he said "There's not a better team in the Premiership than Villa at the moment, and we'll have to be at our very best just to make it a decent game."
The tie at Huddersfield's new McAlpine Stadium is a bit of a collectors' item an all ticket match involving Wimbledon. Brian Horton's men would doubtless have preferred to be facing Middlesbrough, not only because the Teessiders are eminently beatable right now but because they would have attracted a full house.
The First Division's third placed club have not reached the last 16 since 1972, when Frank Worthington scored in the defeat of West Ham. On the same day Wimbledon won at Merthyr in the Southern League, and yet a Huddersfield victory would be classed as a giant killing of sorts.
Having narrowly avoided being shunted into the Cup sidings at Crewe, Southampton's tour of railway towns continues at Steve McMahon's Swindon, two places above Crewe at the Second Division summit. On a day untypically short of players facing their former club, Paul Allen, a Wembley winner with Spurs in 1991, stands out.
Still the century's youngest FA Cup finalist he was 17 years, 256 days old when he helped West Ham beat Arsenal in 1980 the Swindon midfielder has a point to prove to Lawrie McMenemy. According to Allen, his time at Southampton was up as soon as McMenemy returned as football director.
"He obviously didn't rate me but what upset me was that it was never discussed with either him or Alan Ball," Allen said. "Dave Merrington (Ball's successor) was very fair to me, but I've been glad to come to a club where you respect the manager and he gives you a fair chance."
Shrewsbury, playing within their own cramped confines and with Port Vale's example to spur them, should give a good account of themselves in tomorrow's delayed fourth round tie against Liverpool. But thoughts of Bob Paisley will make Liverpool equally determined to ensure Gay Meadow does not become a field of dreams for the team 10th in the Second Division.
