I'm not a fan of England internationals and think mostly they're a waste of time. I must confess however to putting the match on yesterday when I learnt that three Aston Villa players were starting, but it was on in the background and I paid little attention to it.
And it's not just that I think it's a waste of time although I do understand and appreciate it from a footballer perspective. But it's made worse when we have a foreigner managing the national side. But it was nice to see three Aston Villa players start.
But it's not Aston Villa and if football is my sport and Aston Villa is my Club, England come way down that list. It's actually just a little below the FA Cup final. And what a coincidence, because this Sunday it's Preston in the FA Cup.
And do I need to remind you that it's the quarter finals? This is big and we are close and the sides left in this tournament are us, Preston, Fulham, Palace, Forest, Brighton, Bournemouth and Manchester City.
Now, I'm not going to get carried away or even that excited, but we are close. We're within touching distance. And I think we can beat any of those sides on our day. It's just can we have three days and the days we need in the League and the days we want in the Champions League.
We're most definitely at the business end of the season and everything up until now has been about getting here. If you fast forward 10 weeks, what would you be happy with?
I'm thinking about this a lot at the moment. I'll leave my thoughts in the comments.
Match facts from the BBC
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Both Preston North End and Aston Villa have progressed from three of the six previous FA Cup ties between the sides, with this the first meeting since a 1-0 win for Aston Villa in January 1967.
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Preston have won just one of their last 15 meetings with Aston Villa in all competitions (D9 L5). Each of the last three have finished in a draw, most recently a 1-1 at Deepdale in December 2018.
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This is Preston’s first FA Cup quarter-final match since 1965-66, eventually losing to Manchester United. They last reached the semi-final of the competition in 1963-64, ultimately losing the final to West Ham United that year.
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Aston Villa have won each of their last four FA Cup quarter-final matches, with this their first since a 2-0 win against West Bromwich Albion in 2014-15.
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Preston have lost 18 of their last 19 FA Cup games against top-flight opponents, with the only exception in this run a 4-1 win at Derby County in the fourth round in 2007-08.
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Aston Villa have won just one of their last eight away games in the FA Cup (D2 L5), beating Middlesbrough 1-0 in last season’s third round.
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Preston are unbeaten in their last 15 games across all competitions at Deepdale (W6 D9), and haven’t conceded more than one goal in any match during this run (nine conceded overall).
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Marco Asensio has been involved in nine goals (6 goals, 3 assists) across his last seven starts in his league’s primary cup competition (Spanish Copa del Rey, Coupe de France and English FA Cup), netting both of Aston Villa’s goals in their 2-0 win over Cardiff in the fifth round.