Ah the romance of the FA Cup...........although the prestige of the cup has been devalued in recent seasons as clubs send out under strength teams to compete in the oldest cup competition in the world it still has a special buzz for the more nostalgic fans. Memories of classic cup games surface from the depths of the memory vault forever entwined with classic commentary.........David Coleman's epic " Clarke------One-nil" in the centenary final or Motty's first FA Cup game describing non league Hereford's Ronnie Radford thunderbolt beating high flying Newcastle United.
The magic of the cup always seemed to throw up seemingly impossible giant killing acts and the mighty whites have been on the receiving end on too many occasions.....Ray Crawford and his 4th Div Colchester United knocking out mighty Leeds in 71 and two years later 2nd div Sunderland upsetting the odds at Wembley to take the cup back to Wearside, still don't know how Jim Montgomery saved Lorimer's shot! Unfortunately the magic of the cup has been tarnished with the advent of television's influence on the game and it now stands a poor third in priorities behind the Prem and the European competitions...........it's not only that the game's kick off times are spread over the weekend to suit the TV schedules and it is for that reason we have a Friday night game, ffs, .............to me it's a bit like eating your Sunday roast at 11am on Saturday morning, it will still taste the same but doesn't quite feel right, but also you have to google to find out when the draw for the next round is (it was always Monday lunchtime on a crackly radio)
So we find ourselves in at the 1st round stage for the 2nd season running and facing what could be a tricky tie against the Cobblers from Northampton in what will be a stadium that's no more than a third full. It's by no means certain that we will be fielding our strongest side for this evening's televised test which will leave this particular fan with a heavy heart, especially if we fail to progress to the dreamy possibility of a 3rd round tie with a team higher up the league pyramid (can't use the phrase bigger club).
One last thought on the week when the US election came to a predictable end after what seems an eternity of build up and an eye watering cost of $1.5bn, the last time we won the Cup Richard Nixon was the US President, the FA Cup Final was the only live club game on TV all year and reality TV was watching an elephant piss on John Noakes' foot..........those were the days!!!!
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