It could really happen

Fifth round we are home vs Dewsbury (very winnable)

Then a good chance we could draw winners of York vs Newcastle in the Semi's

I'd say we would be favourites to get to the final assuming we dodge Bradford \ Fax \ Batley in the semi final draw

We could easily lose to Dewsbury, but a home draw against them is about as attractive draw as you can get. If we don’t win we deserve to be criticised. Win, put our big boy trousers on for one game and think about how many chances we get to go to Wembley and we could well be on our way to what used to be the big day. Having said that we’d probably be the weakest side left in the last 4 so the others would be delighted to draw us.

Dewsbury at the Union ground again? AFC are at home weekend of the 23rd.
Then, if we make it through, will the pitch be available for the next round should we get drawn at home?
Fingers crossed for me, coz I'm in town the weekend of that round....

we are likely to be playing a SL team in the next round assuming we beat Dewsbury, so I can't see it at Rosslyn park if the team is a Wigan \ Leeds \ Saints \ Wire for example. I'd expect we would probably switch the game to the SL teams ground

The 1895 cup semi is a different beast however I would expect that PL would not be available for that game (be the 2 month period we are kicked out from playing on the ground we are paying 200K per year for), so I would expect that to be at Rosslyn Park if we are at home

Would be very much on brand for us to make our best cup run in a long while an absolute nightmare of scheduling and availability!

And with possibly the worst team in our history.

In fairness the one that started last season was worse. Skolars were loaning us players. Wonder if we paid them for that.

A bit harsh mate.
We've had worse.
If anything it looks like the current side is capable of improving.

True, I was thinking of sides since the start of the SL era since I didn't see them before that. And BigTime makes a good point the one at the start of last season was indeed worse.

It was rubbish and it just got worse week after week like some dystopian nightmare. That’s what happens when you make half baked plans and run everyone’s contract down. That won’t happen again.... oh hold on....FFS.

Imagine if we did have to gift home advantage to the SL club like an amateur side. When asked by RL authorities why we explained “well it would look big and clever to have a spanking new ground to grow into (although we’ve made only minimal efforts on that front we have big plans) but the problem is although it costs an arm and a leg and we can’t train there (unlike our previous ground) we can’t actually access it for weeks on end over the season.” Hmmm. Said the RL authorities “Any plans for that to change in the future?” “ Plans? WTF are those?”

Let's hope we don't get spanked by Wigan a la 2013, because we know what that started......thanks again Dave

It would certainly be disappointing, I guess we'll see how it plays out.

As much as PL is a great facility, it's not designed to have a small rugby crowd rattling around inside it. Its the facility we should be aiming to move towards down the line, off the back of building consistently competitive squads and dare I say it, a larger following in the long run. I much preferred the atmosphere at RP on Saturday, to any of the PL home games we've had so far this season. A smaller venue and a bit less glamorous yes, but I felt it helped to build a better overall atmosphere.

PL is a nice new stadium with decent transport links. No one can say it doesn’t look the business but as you say a nice stadium 3/4 + empty can only look so good.
I can’t get a sense of whether the corporate is better but am willing to accept it is. How much interest there is in corporate and how much it is growing month on month is difficult to know. When the fan zone is open the food options for the general punter are slightly better, when not, they are identical to Ealing.

The one thing I do know is if we get to an average gate of 1500 -1750 whilst a mid table Championship side outside the heartlands and parachuted into an area with no residual buy in for RL then we will have done well. How that matches up to financial targets I don’t know but I do think the 5000 is pie in the sky. So if I’m right although a little tin pot Ealing is a better fit especially with the big new(ish) stand and scope to add some more seating. I do think despite the small crowd rattling around the ground The atmosphere at PL is decent now we are all in the east stand but the idea of inhabiting a ground where 3 sides are closed and the fourth side 1/3 full is a difficult sell and there is no suggestion that is likely to change anytime soon. We experimented with opening 2 sides against Widnes after. the flawed awareness raising campaign. We were truly (but completely predictably) dreadful and have never got anywhere near those crowd numbers again. I also wonder how easy is it for those from the North to drive down and park near PL (as opposed to Ealing). I suspect that is a popular method of getting to games in London historically that we may well have curtailed. All told I can’t make the case for PL over Ealing. We don’t even seem to be actively engaging with the community which I assume is more difficult now we only have access to players for a short while and have next to no back room staff. As for RP well it’s tinpot in the same way as Ealing was and the seating area was very very poor (borderline dangerous). Transport wise I suspect driving there may not be too bad but I’m unclear on parking options and the transport link, which is well situated, is a train which is more fiddly than a tube. I thought the atmosphere was decent. The club house was good although I didn’t have the patience to wait for the burger van to get its act together. On balance I prefer PL.
Any way we dress it up we are in some strife and our bungled re-launch run simultaneously with a shambolic move to PT meant we missed a chance to make a good 1st impression....and then there is the decamping to away games and Kent for weeks on end that really doesn’t make any sense and kills momentum. I suspect our average crowd numbers are probably what they were last year circa 750-950. All things considered that’s not bad but also not good enough to justify the expense.

They've already started either lying or not releasing the figures. The chances of getting over 1,000, which was claimed last year with some fantastic attendances announced in 50's is minimal.
Hughes and Hughes Jr haven't a fickung clue what to do and Hockey Hobby is as much use as Gus. The Corporate guy has sold SFA and again and again, they are concentrating on the 50 or so discounted corporate tickets to cover Loubsers Wages.

I know I've banged on about this for 2 decades, but christ on a bike they're useless....the lot of them!

IMG really should take a long hard look at Skolars and promote them if anyone come licencing, because the shambles at AFC is nothing more than a joke.

Remember when Hughes said "playing at a 2nd or 3rd tier Rugby or football club wasn't the future".......he's lost his bloody marbles!