Playoff-chasing sides Middlesbrough and Blackburn Rovers will put their promotion ambitions to one side this weekend when they meet in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday at the Riverside.
Managers Michael Carrick and John Eustace could be tempted to discard the cup in favour of focusing on promotion, but a win for either side could give them a psychological edge for the coming weeks in the playoff hunt.
Match preview
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Another draw at the weekend saw Middlesbrough extend their current unbeaten run to six games, but only two of those games have ended in victory.
Being held 1-1 by Cardiff City saw the gap to the automatic places grow bigger, so the playoffs are the only realistic hope fifth-place Boro now have of returning to the Premier League after almost a decade away.
It is two decades since Boro last won a major honour, when Steve McClaren led them to the League Cup in 2004, but they have never been able to add the FA Cup to the trophy cabinet.
The closest Boro got was in 1997 when they were losing finalists, the same season they also lost in the final of the League Cup too, and the home supporters will hope for a better showing in this competition than they managed in the League Cup, losing 5-0 at home at the first hurdle against Stoke City.
Recent performances suggest they may not though, because Boro have lost at this stage of the FA Cup in four of the last five seasons, including the last two, and you have to go back to the mid-1980s to find the last time they lost in the third round three seasons running.
The hosts have beaten Blackburn in their last two FA Cup meetings, but the most recent was all the way back in 2002, with Rovers reigning supreme in this fixture in the past few years.
Blackburn are unbeaten on their last 10 visits to the Riverside, and they also won 1-0 here earlier this season in the Championship, and Eustace will hope he can continue the club's fine recent performances in the competition.
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Quarter-finalists in 2022-23, Blackburn also got to the fifth round last season, improving greatly on a run that saw them go out in the third round five years in succession between 2018 and 2022.
While they were Premier League champions in the mid-1990s, Blackburn were a much better outfit in the FA Cup during the 2000s, reaching the semi-finals twice, and even since dropping into the lower leagues, they have been quarter-finalists three times in the last 11 years.
It is approaching 100 years since the Lancashire club last won the competition though, and they have not reached the final since 1960, with recent poor form also coming at the worst possible time for those dreaming of a cup run.
Blackburn's promotion hopes have taken a huge blow in recent weeks, taking just two points from their last five games, including a defeat at home to bitter rivals Burnley last weekend at Ewood Park.
Six wins in a row from early November to mid-December seem to have been a vain, with Blackburn now outside of the playoff places in seventh, but the gap remains just one point.
Team News
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Boro are set to be without a long list of first-team players including Luke Ayling, Jonny Howson, Aidan Morris, Marcus Forss and both goalkeepers Seny Dieng and Sol Brynn, so Aussie stopper Tom Glover has come in from the cold and started the last three matches, but has faced just three shots on target in that time.
Tommy Conway is also a doubt meaning he may not get the chance to face one of his favoured opponents who he scored three goals in four matches against, and to replicate his third-round heroics from last season when he scored twice for Bristol City against West Ham United.
The hosts will not be short of a goal threat though, with Emmanuel Latte Lath in red-hot form, notching his 10th league goal of the season against Cardiff last time out.
Blackburn, meanwhile, are without their top scorer Yuki Ohashi due to injury, with the influential Lewis Travis also currently sidelined.
Eustace may still be without attacking midfielder Arnor Sigurdsson, while defensive trio Harry Pickering, Hayden Carter and Scott Wharton are absent too, but Todd Cantwell did overcome a minor setback to return last weekend.
Middlesbrough possible starting lineup:
Glover; Dijksteel, Van den Berg, Fry, Neto Borges; Barlaser, Hackney; Jones, Gilbert, Burgzorg; Latte Lath
Blackburn Rovers possible starting lineup:
Pears; Rankin-Costello, Hyam, Batth, Beck; Tronstad, Buckley; Weimann, Cantwell, Hedges; Leonard
We say: Middlesbrough 1-1 Blackburn Rovers (Middlesbrough win on penalties)
There is almost nothing to separate the sides in the Championship table, and both managers could be tempted to make some personnel changes with the promotion picture hotting up.
The two sides have won very few games in recent weeks, and this one may go all the way, with Boro proving tough to beat, even if they have only won two of their last six matches.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Andrew Delaney
