FA Cup replays will return next season - having been scrapped in the Covid-hit 2020/21 campaign.

The Football Association has confirmed that drawn games will again be subject to replays in all qualifying rounds and the first four rounds proper in the new campaign.

The fifth round onwards will see games decided there and then.

But it returns the prospect of some dramatic or potentially money-spinning replays back to the calendar in 2021/22.

Carlisle would under normal circumstances have faced an FA Cup replay in last season's first round.

But with no replay, their 0-0 draw at Hayes & Yeading went to extra-time, finishing 2-2 before the Cumbrians won on penalties.

Replays were shelved last term because of the congested calendar which resulted from the season's belated start amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

United had two replays in the previous campaign, which saw them beat Forest Green at the second attempt in round two at home, before losing narrowly at home to Cardiff in the third round, having drawn with the Championship side in Wales.

Other memorable replays include the epic third round tussle with Yeovil in 2016, when a 1-1 draw also featured a controversial "clothesline" challenge from Blues frontman Jabo Ibehre on home keeper Artur Krysiak which went unpunished, before the Cumbrians won on penalties to set up a fourth round meeting with Everton.

The Blues have also taken Sheffield Wednesday to a replay in recent seasons.

The 2021/22 competition will be the 150th campaign in the FA Cup's history.

The FA have announced that a total of 729 clubs will enter the cup this season.

The total prize fund will remain at £16m. Winners and losers in qualifying ties will receive payments - as will those in the semi-final and final - but only the winners from first round to quarter-final games will gain prize money.