Bristol City v Wolves: FA Cup fifth round – live!

Laughter is the best medicine department

As you will already know if you’ve devoted the requisite screen time to this thing of ours, there are no FA Cup replays from the fifth round onwards. We’ll have extra time and penalties today if necessary.

Wolves have picked a very strong side, with Ruben Neves and Rui Patricio the only regulars to be rested. Quite right, too: it is not beyond the realms they could win the competition this year, and if the draw is favourable they have a great chance of reaching the final.

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Photograph: Chesnot/Getty Images Europe

Hello and welcome to live coverage of the FA Cup fifth round tie between Bristol City and Wolves at Ashton Gate. There will be many casual observers who will look at this fixture and assume a comfortable win for Wolves. But I put it to you, dear reader, that these people simply have not spent a sufficient percentage of their screen time studying the form table for Europe’s five biggest professional leagues. Have a perusal of this!

Bristol City have won their last nine games in all competitions, and the upshot is a nine-to-five line that I can’t quite make work. Those wins have taken them to the fifth round of the FA Cup and, more importantly, to fifth in the Championship. They are serious contenders for promotion to the Premier League for the first since they lost to Hull in the play-off final 11 years ago.

The last time they were in the top flight was 1980. The last time they were in the FA Cup quarter-finals was 1974 when, unthinkably, they beat the unbeaten league leaders Leeds United at Elland Road.

That year they had to beat one of Europe’s form teams. This year, they are one of Europe’s form teams.

Kick off is at 1pm.