EWOOD legend Tony Parkes today insisted Blackburn Rovers won't take the FA Cup for granted when they step out at Sunderland's Stadium of Light tonight.

Recent team selections and attendances from ties involving both clubs have only served to add weight to the argument that the FA Cup has lost some of its magic.

But as far as Parkes is concerned, it remains one of the greatest competitions in the world and Graeme Souness's assistant will be reminding his players of that fact before they take to the field against the Black Cats in their fourth round replay.

"As far as I'm concerned, the FA Cup still has magic for me and it should have magic for a lot of other people as well," said Parkes.

"To dismiss it and talk about playing reserve teams is not for me.

"If you're in a competition then you play your best possible side because why can't you do well in two different competitions?

"It's there to be won and if we were knocked out of each competition at the third round stage then we'd soon be playing just one game a week and the atmosphere around the place would be totally different.

"So you can't have it all ways. We are here to play football, we are here to be in competitions like the FA Cup and do well, and there's no reason why we can't do well in it this season."

Parkes, a veteran of over 30 FA Cup campaigns with Rovers as a player, manager and coach, remembers a time when the competition was the highlight of the calendar.

It, therefore, saddens him to see some modern day managers treating the famous old trophy with disdain.

Sunderland and Bolton were the latest teams to field weakened sides when they met in the third round.

"FA Cup games are brilliant games and I still enjoy them," said Parkes.

"Years ago you'd have special training ahead of an FA Cup tie and you'd often go away for a few days just to make the players feel important which made them realise just how important it was.

"But now it's just like another game because the Premiership has become more important.

"However, like everything, the further you go, the bigger the buzz you get.

"And if you get to the semi-finals or the final then there's money to be made and, while that's the case, then it's got to be important."

With a home tie against First Division Watford awaiting the winners of tonight's fourth round replay, the incentive is there for Rovers to progress.

But Parkes admits Rovers will need to perform a lot better than they did at Aston Villa on Sunday where their miserable away form continued.

"We haven't played well away from home for the last two or three games," said Parkes.

"It was certainly a poor performance on Sunday. We didn't really create too much and that's something we need to address."

Aside from a Worthington Cup win at Wigan in December, Rovers' last away victory came at Highbury back in October.

And Parkes admits the team's form away from Ewood is a major cause for concern, although he points to a crippling injury list as a reason for the slump in fortunes.

"I can't really put it down to anything other than the injuries.

"Damien Duff, for instance, is a big part of our attacking play and we are not blessed with left-sided players when Damien is missing.

"When we've got David Dunn out, we do have Tugay and Garry Flitcroft and we can cover that a little bit better.

"But the left side is a difficult one for us and we usually have to play someone out of position on that side.

"So we have had one or two injured players who we can't really replace.

"We've got a lot of individual players of which Duff and Dunn are two of them and they can win a game for you, whereas sometimes we have to play players who can't win the game for us because they're not quite as good.

"But that's not being disrespectful to the players who have come in. They'd admit that themselves."