19:09
“The FA Cup only does alphabetical order for those entering at that stage,” says Iain Brown. “Every other number relates to when they were drawn out last round. The winner of whoever is drawn out for the first match will be number 1 when the fourth round is drawn and so on.”
19:00
“Is there rhyme or reason to the numbering beyond 44?” asks Simon McGrother. “As an OAFC fan, I’m a bit hurt by the number 64 in case this is some kind of seeding. Praying for a big pay-day. If we bang them in like we did against Bradford, nobody is safe.”
It looks like the first 44 teams are the ones who qualified automatically, ie from the top two divisions. I presume the rest were numbered before the second-round ties took place, so it wasn’t possible to do them alphabetically. Either that or someone at the FA supports a giant that Oldham slayed in 1989-90, and still hasn’t got over it.
15:51
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the draw for the FA Cup third round. There are five non-league clubs left in the draw, with Marine, Chorley, Stockport, Canvey Island and Boreham Wood all dreaming of a Goliathan third-round tie. Only four will make it to the last 64; Canvey Island and Boreham Wood play each other in the final second-round match tonight.
The draw is scheduled to take place just after 7pm British time, and these are the relevant ball numbers:
1 AFC Bournemouth
2 Arsenal
3 Aston Villa
4 Barnsley
5 Birmingham City
6 Blackburn Rovers
7 Brentford
8 Brighton & Hove Albion
9 Bristol City
10 Burnley
11 Cardiff City
12 Chelsea
13 Coventry City
14 Crystal Palace
15 Derby County
16 Everton
17 Fulham
18 Huddersfield Town
19 Leeds United
20 Leicester City
21 Liverpool
22 Luton Town
23 Manchester City
24 Manchester United
25 Middlesbrough
26 Millwall
27 Newcastle United
28 Norwich City
29 Nottingham Forest
30 Preston North End
31 Queens Park Rangers
32 Reading
33 Rotherham United
34 Sheffield United
35 Sheffield Wednesday
36 Southampton
37 Stoke City
38 Swansea City
39 Tottenham Hotspur
40 Watford
41 West Bromwich Albion
42 West Ham United
43 Wolverhampton Wanderers
44 Wycombe Wanderers
45 Stevenage
46 Blackpool
47 Tranmere Rovers
48 Crawley Town
49 Stockport County
50 Plymouth Argyle
51 Portsmouth
52 Cheltenham Town
53 Chorley
54 Morecambe
55 Shrewsbury Town
56 Mansfield Town
57 Newport County
58 Marine
59 Exeter City
60 Canvey Island or Boreham Wood
61 Doncaster Rovers
62 Milton Keynes Dons
63 Bristol Rovers
64 Oldham Athletic
Updated