Having advanced to the top eight of the Champions League, Nottingham Forest, coached by Tony Twain, also made a historic breakthrough—they passed the quarterfinals to reach the semifinals. It was the best result they had in the FA Cup since Twain was in charge.
But by the time the FA Cup reached the sixth round, Twain had abandoned the strategy of grouping half of the First Team and half of the youth team to play. Instead he deployed a full First Team lineup. The change was never seen in previous seasons, so much so that their sixth-round opponent, Manchester City, was surprised and eventually lost the game. The change also boded well for Twain's emphasis on the FA Cup this season—Nottingham Forest had always been eliminated early in the tournament, becoming spectators. This time they wanted to be the ones with the last laugh at the FA Cup.
