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Before the match tonight, we have the small matter of the FA Cup draw for the fifth round. Who will Macclesfield or Brentford face in the next round? Niall McVeigh is providing updates.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to a historic minute-by-minute. Tonight sixth-tier Macclesfield welcome Premier League Brentford to the Leasing.com Stadium in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Macc’s 2-1 victory against Crystal Palace in the last round was the biggest that the FA Cup has seen. Against all odds, they beat the FA Cup holders, a team 117 places ahead of them at the time. Macclesfield defender Luke Matheson, best known for his equaliser for Rochdale against Manchester United in 2019, summed up what tonight’s game means. He said: “It’s not necessarily [about saying] ‘we can do this’, it’s ‘we’ve done this’, so we want to go out there and prove it to ourselves again.”
Unlike Crystal Palace, Brentford are flying. Keith Andrews has guided Brentford to seventh in the Premier League after a 1-1 draw with league leaders Arsenal. A win for the away side tonight would also have huge significance as it would only be the third time the club has progressed to the fifth round since their quarter-final finish in 1989.
Kick off is at 7.30pm GMT. Join me for the next few hours.
