Road to Cardiff - The final Utd v Arse

Our final and 8th team in the 2004 / 05 N&R's Road to Cardiff will be Malcolm Glazer's Manchestershire United States. Ok, no more jokes about the richest, sorry in the most debt, club in the world because on Saturday we will all be supporting them. Alright, not you Ginger Rabbit, Soozie, Lupo, Danny, Rob, Chris & Rutts (Jeez, we have too many Arse's in this league) but the rest of us!

At 9am in Gingers Ale House on Ashland and Grace I will be having my plate of pancakes with syrup and a pint of Guinness and will watch what I hope will be the best final we have seen for years. It has all the potential and has to better than the walkover we had last May.

The team news ahead of Saturday is that the Gunners will be missing talisman Thierry Henry but Edu is expected to play his last game for Arsenal. Freddie Ljungberg has declared himself fit and Arsene Wenger has said Jose Reyes (his last game too?) will definitely start the game - probably up front alongside either Dennis Bergkamp or Robin van Persie.

United will be without Gabriel Heinze and Gary Neville is very doubtful but will be hoping for more goals from the rejuvenated Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The Glazer take-over adds more spice of course to what will already be a fiery encounter and I wonder if we will see any of the demonstrations planned.

The best of luck to both sets of fans in the N&R FL. Here's hoping for a great final.

The Road to Cardiff:

Final Man Utd v Arsenal
At Millennium Stadium

SF Newcastle 4, Man Utd 1
Scorer: Amoebi
Attendence: 69,280 (at Millennium Stadium)

QF Newcastle 1, Tottenham 0
Scorer: Kluivert
Attendance: 51,307

5th R Newcastle 1, Chelsea 0
Scorer: Kluivert
Attendance: 45,740

4th R Newcastle 3, Coventry 1
Scorers: Shearer, Amoebi, Babayaro
Attendance: 44,044

3rd R Yeading 0, Newcastle 2S
corers: Bowyer, Amoebi
Attendance: 10,824 (Held at Loftus Road)

2nd R Slough Town 1, Yeading 3
Scorer: Harris
Attendance: 2,418

1st R Slough Town 2, Walsall 1
Scorers: Hodges, Harris
Attendance: 2,023

4th QR Slough Town 3, Salisbury City 2
Scorers: Matthews, Wallace
Attendance: 1,195

3rd QR Weston-Super-Mare 1, Salisbury City 3
Scorers: Davis (2), Matthews
Attendance: 543

2nd QR Replay Frome Town 0, Salisbury City 3
Attendance: 665

2nd QR Salisbury City 1, Frome Town 1
Scorer: SalterA
ttendance: 636

1st QR Replay Backwell United 1, Frome Town 3
Scorer: Bloomfield
Attendance: 90 (played at Clevedon Town FC)

1st QR Frome Town 2, Backwell United 2
Scorers: Hewitt, Bryne
Attendance: 191

Prelim Round Backwell United 2, Bridgewater Town 1
Attendance: 83

Extra Prelim Round Backwell United 3, Odd Down 2
Scorers: Quoi, Tilley
Attendance: 26