Town have drawn League One Bristol Rovers in the third round of the FA Cup.

The Blues and Rovers famously met in the competition in the fifth round in 1978 with Town on their way to winning the trophy for the only time.

Following a 2-2 draw in the snow at Eastville, the Blues won 3-0 at Portman Road in the replay.

Since then, the clubs have been drawn against one another three further times in the FA Cup. In the fifth round in 1979, the Blues won 6-1 at Portman Road, six years later Town were victorious 2-1 in the third round at Eastville.

The teams met at Rovers' current home the Memorial Stadium in 1998, again in the third round, and drew 1-1, again in snow, with the Blues winning the replay 1-0 at Portman Road.

More recently, the teams met in the Carabao Cup in August last year, the Blues running out 2-0 winners with Jack Taylor, on his debut, and Sone Aluko, his final goal in professional football, on target.

The Rovers squad includes former Blues Grant Ward and James Wilson, and one-time loanee Luke Thomas.

Third round ties will be played over the weekend of Saturday 11th January.

Photo: Action Images

Oldschoolnumber9 added 19:28 - Dec 2 Perfect.
4

MickMillsTash added 19:29 - Dec 2 Smells of the 1978 cup run already,
2

Mark added 19:29 - Dec 2 Excellent. It should be a good attendance, a straight forward win, £115k prize money collected and into round 4. Also a chance to rotate the squad slightly, but I would like a good cup run this year. We have waited a long time for it.
8

Stretchyboy added 19:33 - Dec 2 Didn't we say the same about playing AFC Wimbledon? Nothing is straightforward with the town.
8

BlueWax added 19:35 - Dec 2 Yeah and after beating Maidstone last year we were into round 5 lol. Ideal for squad players in fa cup
4

HALLSJ added 19:44 - Dec 2 Ideal draw
0

IpswichT62OldBoy added 20:23 - Dec 2 Nice and neutral, no biggy if we go out but we would expect and hope to progress. Points in the Premiership are the priority. Paradoxically the Maidstone result probably got us promoted so who knows where this may sit in retrospect
2

chepstowblue added 20:39 - Dec 2 Uninspiring match up. And our apathy towards cup competitions will almost certainly lead to an early exit to the pleasure of the doughnuts who'll claim that it'll benefit our relegation battle.
-4

Help added 21:00 - Dec 2 The start of 3 home games. Bearing in mind we got Brighton and man c at home after this can't see a strong team being put out myself
1

NITFC added 21:31 - Dec 2 Of the 16 players that made the pitch the last time we played Bristol, and drew 0-0 away, 10 are still in the squad. Hurst is injured but I would imagine most of the others will play.
1

algarvefan added 22:01 - Dec 2 I was at Eastville for the 2-2 draw in the snow, should never have gone ahead. I missed the connection to the last rain home to Exmouth in Devon and walked the 10 miles home in the snow, mad days supporting Town on the road.
6

TimmyH added 22:02 - Dec 2 Don't hold your breath...
1

runningout added 22:45 - Dec 2 have learned yet not to rotate too much. I say start with strong line up. Won’t happen
-1

runningout added 22:45 - Dec 2 ‘we’
0

mathiemagic added 08:19 - Dec 3 We have to start with a strong 11 or we will get done again by lower league opposition. Considering our recent cup games we might get on the telly again as broadcasters sniff another upset !
0

Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 10:11 - Dec 3 No way the broadcasters will target this. There's the "top" clash of Arse vs ManU, and then plenty of minnows, prob Leeds vs Harrogate being one of the picks. I don't mind not being highlighted on this occasion.
0

Ebantiass added 13:40 - Dec 3 We should go through with this one but we have been pretty poor of late in the cup competitions so anything could happen. Cant see the gaffa starting with the strongest 11 but maybe it would be a good idea, with them getting a win behind them albeit against the rovers of bristol.
0

Linkboy13 added 14:14 - Dec 3 We've already got injuries so we will not be risking any more and jepadising our chances of survival in the Premier league.
0

blues1 added 16:41 - Dec 3 Chepstowblue. So why do you feel the need to abuse other fans just bcse their view of going out of the cup may be different to yours. And let's get it right. Everyone would like us to go through. Just not the disaster if we dont, for some than for others.
0

Motown added 18:05 - Dec 3 Ideal opportunity to get some game time into squad players (Woolf, Townsend, Taylor, Luongo, Broadhead, Al Hamadi etc) plus any new signings by that point in the window
0

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