Numbers Are In

The FA Cup Sixth Round Proper Draw
Monday 20 February 2006
Winning club receives £300,000
£265,000 television payment for each club



Ball numbers

1 Middlesbrough
2 Newcastle United
3 Aston Villa or Manchester City
4 Chelsea or Colchester United
5 Charlton Athletic
6 Liverpool
7 Bolton Wanderers or West Ham United
8 Birmingham City

The draw will be made at 1.25pm on Monday live at Soho Square and will be screened live on BBC2.

Jamie Redknapp and Rob Lee will be drawing the numbers out of the hat on Monday.

FA Cup Fifth Round Factfile

Liverpool Take On United’s Cup Heritage

Liverpool will be looking for their first FA Cup victory over Manchester United for 85 years when the two giants go head-to-head on Saturday.

United and Liverpool are two of the FA Cup’s most successful clubs with 17 Cup triumphs between them.

United lead the way with 11 successes. The clubs’ first Cup meeting was back in 1898 when Liverpool won 2-1 at Anfield in a Second Round replay.

In nine subsequent meetings though, United have come out on top in all but one clash. Liverpool’s last success was in a First Round replay in 1921.

The sides last met at Old Trafford in 1999, United's Treble season, when Dwight Yorke and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored in United's 2-1 Fourth Round victory.

Colchester Can Emulate Club’s Finest Hour

Colchester United will be hoping to revive memories of their greatest Cup moment when they take on Chelsea this weekend.

The U’s reached the Sixth Round as a Division Four side in 1971 and the on the way they caused one of the greatest upsets in Cup history by beating Don Revie's Leeds United 3-2 at Layer Road in the Fifth Round.

Ray Crawford, formerly of Ipswich and England, was the hero in 1971 scoring twice as Colchester built up a 3-0 lead against Leeds, then top of Division One.

Dick Graham's "Grandad's Army" held on for victory after Leeds pulled it back to 3-2.

Since that day, Colchester have been on the receiving end of a few Cup upsets. In the last eight seasons they've been knocked out by non-Leaguers Hereford, Bedlington, Yeovil and Chester.

The U’s did reach the Fifth Round two years ago, losing 1-0 at Sheffield United. They will face Chelsea in the FA Cup for the first time.

Shearer Prepares To Host Saints Visit

The visit of Southampton to St James' Park will see Alan Shearer, losing FA Cup Finalist in 1998 and 1999, face the club where his career began.

This is the eighth time they've been drawn together with Southampton leading the way with five wins to Newcastle’s two.

Newcastle won their last meeting 3-0 at St Mary's in the Third Round just two years ago.


London Derby Awaits Martin Allen’s Cup Heroes

Martin Allen’s Brentford are competing in the Fifth Round for the second successive season and now have Premiership Charlton Athletic in their sights.

After knocking out Sunderland in a Fourth Round thriller, Brentford have the target of reaching the quarter-finals for the fifth time in their history.

In last season’s Fifth Round, Brentford secured a 2-2 draw at Southampton after being 2-0 down and then took a fourth-minute lead in the Griffin Park replay before going down 3-1. Brentford’s most recent Sixth Round excursion saw them take on Liverpool who beat them 4-0 at Anfield in 1989.

For Charlton, meanwhile, it's almost 60 years since Chris Duffy's extra-time shot won The Cup and since then the Addicks have failed to reach the semi-finals. In the current campaign they've been given three out of three draws against lower-division opposition.

After a 4-2 win at Sheffield Wednesday and a late clincher against Leyton Orient, they now face Brentford who they have taken on only twice in The Cup before.

Charlton knocked Brentford out 9-4 on aggregate in the Sixth Round in 1946, the only year in which ties were played over two legs, and went on to make the Final.

The Londoners have only met once in The Cup since then, Charlton winning 3-2 at home in the Fourth Round in 1996.