Rovers entered the 4th round of the 2022-23 FA Cup following a 1-0 away victory over Norwich City in the Third Round, and they were joined by the teams who were victorious in the previous round.
The draw for the 4th round occurred live on BBC 1 as the 32 victorious teams were placed into the hat and were handed their fate by Mark Chapman, former England forward and 2000-01 FA Cup winner Emile Heskey and three-time FA Cup Winner, Karen Bardsley.
With the draw still seeing some loose ends with multiple replays still to decide some of the ties, Rovers who had secured their place in the 4th round already and were ball #13 in the draw, were given a home draw against either Forest Green Rovers or Birmingham City, who saw their game on Saturday postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. The clash is set to take place at Ewood Park, across the weekend of the 27th-30th of January, with a confirmed date to be set in the near future.
The date for Forest Green Rovers and Birmingham City has yet to be rescheduled, but Forest Green have had to overcome South Shields by a 2-0 score and Alvechurch by a 2-1 result to be able to face Birmingham, who entered at the Third Round and face Forest Green as their first opponents in this year’s edition of the competition.
Despite Rovers being successful in this competition, having been the victors six times, the team failed to get past the first hurdle last season, after losing 3-2 to Wigan Athletic, at the DW Stadium. If Forest Green Rovers were to emerge victorious, it would be the first ever meeting between the two Rovers, however Rovers and Birmingham City are no strangers to each other, having faced each other in both, the Premier League and the Championship over the years.
Saying that, the two Blues have faced each other four times in the world’s oldest competitions, with Birmingham undefeated against Rovers thus far. The first meeting was way back in 1933 where City beat Rovers 3-0, before they won the second cup meeting two years later in 1935. They would not meet again in the FA Cup until 2004, where the Second City side ran out 4-0 victors, before the latest meeting in 2020, where the Blues again ran out victors over Rovers by a 2-1 scoreline.
