Stoke City hope to end Third Round hoodoo as they host Leyton Orient in the FA Cup

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Stoke City welcome League Two Leyton Orient to the Bet365 Stadium in the Third Round of the FA Cup.

Finalists in 2011, the Potters have not advanced from the Third Round since the 2015/16 season when they beat Doncaster Rovers 2-1 thanks to goals from Jonathan Walters and Peter Crouch.

Since then, a poor run of form in the competition has seen Stoke get beaten by lower league or same-league opposition in all but one of their Round Three ties. So despite being 50 places higher than their opponents, this could be a banana skin for the home side.

In 2017, Wolverhampton Wanderers saw off the then-Premier League Potters, in 2018, then-League Two side Coventry City clinched a 2-1 win against the struggling Stoke. Shrewsbury Town came back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 during a replay before Brentford and Leicester City added themselves to the list of sides to knock out the Potters at the Third Round stage.

However, it must be noted that the Potters are yet to lose to lower league opposition in competitive action under Michael O’Neill.

Due to many first-team players being unavailable for this game, O’Neill could look to hand debuts to the young players in the Stoke academy. Names that the Northern Irishman could include in his team are D’Margio Wright-Phillips, Kieran Coates, Lewis Macari and the highly-rated 16-year-old ‘wonderkid’ Emre Tezgel.

The Potters come into this game off the back of a difficult run of form, losing four of their last six games. The only win during this spell was a record-breaking 2-0 away victory over Queens Park Rangers which ended a seven-year winless streak in the capital.

Stoke have not had the ideal start to 2022 after they surrendered a 1-0 lead courtesy of a Ben Wilmot wondergoal to lose 2-1 against Preston North End on Monday.

Tom Ince was a player who offered an attacking threat and could be in line for another start. Stoke’s number 23 featured in Carabao Cup clashes against Fleetwood Town and Doncaster in the summer and went on to notch a goal against the Rovers.

Ince offers versatility in attack and could be a creative spark in the absence of Nick Powell and the potential absence of Mario Vrancic, who may be rested ahead of Wednesday’s Championship trip to Barnsley.

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As for the visitors, they have reached the Third Round of the FA Cup for the first time in eight years.

Orient have already beaten Ebbsfleet United at home in Round One and destroyed Tranmere Rovers in December with a 4-0 victory at Brisbane Road to reach this stage of the competition.

Kenny Jackett’s side will hope to add their name to the list of teams to knock out higher-placed opposition in this season’s competition.

Having not played since the 18th December, where the O’s lost 1-0 to Tranmere, fixture postponements have meant that Jackett’s side have gone over three weeks without a competitive game so the 60-year-old will hope his players are up for the test against the Potters.

After a good start to their campaign, a late Jamie Proctor winner saw Port Vale come from behind in injury-time to seal a 3-2 victory at the start of October which saw Orient’s form begin to dip and they will hope that by heading four miles south from Vale Park will lay a happy hunting ground.

Aaron Drinan is the O’s leading goal contributor with 10 goals and four assists in the league and the Irishman already has a goal and an assist in this year’s FA Cup.

The 23-year-old attacker is League Two’s fifth top scorer only behind teammate Harry Smith, Forest Green Rovers deadly duo Matt Stevens and Jamille Matt and Newport’s prolific Dom Telford.

Managers’ Thoughts

Stoke boss O’Neill gave his thoughts ahead of the FA Cup clash against Leyton Orient.

“We’re playing against a team from League Two and we will be expected to win, we expect to win ourselves but that doesn’t mean that we just have to turn up and it will be formality.

“It would be disrespectful to approach the game that way. Leyton Orient will want to come and give a good account of themselves.

“When you are losing games you’ve got try and win the next one, it’s as simple as that.

“The players know that winning is something that can become a very good habit and one of the things we have to try and do is put a really strong second half of the season in place.

“This is a game that gives us an opportunity to get back to winning ways”.

Orient manager Jackett expressed his excitement for the tie but also spoke about the O’s recent match preparation troubles.

“I’m really looking forward to the game, it’s been frustrating since just before the Tranmere league game with COVID-19, it has hit us and it’s hit our squad.

“The difference between the two Tranmere games in the cup and in the league within a fortnight, we were six players different from one game to the next.

“We’ve had a disruptive period with player training and player availability, some games off, our training programme has been disrupted as we build up to these games as well.”

Team News

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For Stoke, their ever-growing list of injuries got even longer as Steven Fletcher was prematurely withdrawn from their latest game with a muscle injury and will miss out on the clash against Orient.

Jordan Thompson, who was due to return to action this weekend after a spell out through injury, is now unavailable due to COVID-19.

Josh Tymon’s isolation period has ended and he could make a return to the side for the FA Cup clash.

After missing Monday’s match as his partner gave birth to their new child last weekend, Tommy Smith is ready to return to action if called upon.

The Potters, however, will be without long-term absentees Harry Souttar, Nick Powell, Joe Bursik, Tom Edwards and loanees Romaine Sawyers and Abdallah Sima.

Orient midfielders Thomas James and Callum Reilly are missing with long-term injuries, but apart from that, Jackett’s side have a clean bill of health heading into the clash against Stoke.

Head-to-Head

The two sides have met on 44 occasions, the latest being in August 2009 where the Potters secured a 1-0 away win thanks to a goal from Dave Kitson in the League Cup.

Orient have taken the victory 21 times marginally ahead of Stoke’s 20 triumphs, with three stalemates since the teams’ first meeting back in 1907.

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