BIRMINGHAM City have been handed a home cup draw - at the eighth time of asking!

The Valley Stadium tenants have been on the road constantly in the FA Cup, Premier League Cup and Birmingham County Cup but will be at home in the fifth round of the FA Cup provided they can see off lower league Newcastle United.

The prize on offer is a home tie against either a Blackburn team two divisions below Birmingham in the Northern Combination or Middlesbrough - one division below in the Northern Division Blues won at a canter last season.

Blues face a familiar tortuous fixture list after Sunday's trip to Newcastle was postponed because of a frozen pitch.

The tie was an early casualty, called off on Friday lunchtime with a covering of snow on the home side's pitch.

The clubs will try again at Newcastle on Sunday (ko 1pm - not 2pm as advertised) when Birmingham will again hope to see off the challenge of opponents two divisions below them, in the Northern Combination.

If the weather intervenes again on Sunday, the tie will become a home fixture for Blues a week on Sunday.

If the tie is decided this weekend, Birmingham will visit a West Bromwich side playing three divisions below them in the Birmingham County Cup on Sunday, 19 January.

With the fifth round of the FA Cup pencilled in for Sunday January 26, success at Newcastle could mean a lengthy gap until Redditch United-based Birmingham resume their fight to stay in the National Division of the FA Women's Premier League.

Birmingham City Ladies chief Steve Shipway says the £750,000 sponsorship provided by Nationwide for the development of women's football is money going out of the women's game and into the mens.

Nationwide split £750,000 between the 72 Nationwide League clubs annually for specific causes and have earmarked the cash for women's football this season - with more than £10,000 available to each club.

The money can be used for a number of causes from adopting or developing an existing women's team to funding a women's football development officer.

Blues lose out on both fronts because Birmingham City FC are in the Premiership - rather than the Nationwide League - and the women's club has no links with the men's side anyway.