Cardiff City’s development players take on Millwall tomorrow afternoon and a few hours later will know whether they are needed for FA Cup action.
The Bluebirds face a third round replay against Mansfield Town in Nottingham after the teams drew 0-0 at Cardiff City Stadium and manager Neil Warnock hinted he may put out ‘kids’.
Both City and the Stags will be in Monday’s fourth round draw and Warnock says: “Mansfield deserved the replay and good luck to them.
“Depending on the draw, we’ll put a strong team out. If it’s a bad draw, we’ll put the kids out! We’ll have to see.
“The replay will be a decent game. Mansfield have a good team with pace, power and probably a decent budget for that division.”
Cardiff’s under-23 team take on Millwall at Cardiff International Sports Campus, Leckwith on Monday (Noon kick-off) any of the young players on show could be given their first team chance in the FA Cup.
Warnock puts maintaining a solid challenge for promotion ahead of FA Cup ambitions and he will wait until the draw, being made around 7.10pm on Monday (January 8) live on BBC Two and BT Sport, before thinking about the cup.
Among the players who could come into consideration are defender Connor Young, the son of former Bluebirds centre-back Scott and Sam Bowen, whose dad is ex-City playmaker Jason.
Ben Margetson, the son is former Wales and Cardiff goalkeeper Martyn, is a defender in the club’s development team.
Mark ’Sparky’ Harris, goalkeepers George Ratcliffe and Warren Burwood, Cameron Coxe, Jack Bodenham Isaak Davies,James Waite and more are promising development players who could come into the reckoning.
There is no question that if Warnock’s men draw Premier League opposition they will go for broke, but if it is felt they have a low-key mission it may well be the manager sends out an inexperienced line-up.
Right now, though, Warnock is already thinking about next Saturday’s Championship home match against Sunderland at Cardiff City Stadium plus his efforts to strengthen the squad.
He certainly wasn’t keen on a replay against League Two Mansfield, but the return game will be played in the week beginning January 15.
The Bluebirds made five changes for the clash with Mansfield. Sean Morrison, Jazz Richards, Lee Tomlin, Greg Halford and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing were all called into the team.
“The game served its purpose,” said Warnock. “We’ve had so many problems. Rallsy had to pull out and Bamba had a sickness bug. “Bennett wasn’t going to play and he’s ended up playing the full game.
“Morrison coming back was a massive plus. He’s not felt anything which is fabulous because the medical people were talking about him being out for another two weeks.
“We had to play a bit of a mix and match in the midfield area and we lacked a bit up front. You’re only as good as your front three and we’re struggling. It’s a bit like extracting teeth at the minute.”
Less than 7,000 turned out for the tie and Mansfield probably had the best chance of the match when Lee Angol’s close-range effort was saved by goalkeeper Brian Murphy.
Callum Paterson tested Mansfield goalkeeper Conrad Logan, while Rhys Healey and Morrison went close.
“There are not many teams who will come to Cardiff and play 4-4-2,” said Mansfield manager Steve Evans. “We played that system because we have good players.
“We don’t have players of the quality in Cardiff’s team, but we wanted to get hold of the football and play.”
Cardiff City (4-2-3-1): Murphy, Richards , Manga, Morrison, captain (Damour 74), Bennett, Halford, Paterson, Healey (Hoilett 77), Tomlin, Mendez-Laing, Zohore (Pilkington 80). Subs not used: Etheridge, Feeney, M Harris, Pilkington, Bogle
Mansfield Town (4-4-2): Logan, Anderson, Pearce (C), Bennett, Benning, Potter, Mellis (Atkinson 90), MacDonald, Hamilton, Hemmings (Spencer 45), Angol (Sterling-James 75). Subs not used: Olejnik, Digby, Spencer, White, Butcher.
Attendance: 6,378.
Referee: Lee Probert
The last 32 will contest the fourth round ties over the weekend of January 26 to January 28. Winners at that stage will earn £90,000 in prize money.
Cardiff/Mansfield will be number 22 in the draw.
The full list of draw numbers is: 1 Sheffield United; 2 Watford; 3 Birmingham; 4 Liverpool; 5 Brighton OR Crystal Palace; 6 Peterborough; 7 Bournemouth OR Wigan; 8 Coventry; 9 Newport OR Leeds; 10 Huddersfield; 11 Yeovil; 12 Nottingham Forest OR Arsenal; 13 Notts County; 14 QPR; 15 Manchester United; 16 West Brom; 17 Rochdale; 18 Tottenham OR AFC Wimbledon; 19 Middlesbrough; 20 Fleetwood OR Leicester; 21 Hull; 22 Cardiff OR Mansfield; 23 Manchester City; 24 Shrewsbury OR West Ham; 25 Wolves OR Swansea; 26 Stevenage OR Reading; 27 Newcastle; 28 Millwall; 29 Southampton; 30 Preston; 31 Norwich OR Chelsea; 32 Carlisle OR Sheffield Wednesday.