The institution of the Cup is widely devalued but Nottingham Forest v Liverpool brings up memories of a more innocent ageEvery year the question is asked: what is the point of the FA Cup, why should we care? This is not the Premier League, with its slick production values, glamorous stars at every turn and sense of dramatic urgency. There’s no great sense that it matters: you lose, you’re out and it has no bearing on the race for fourth. You win the thing and your manager still gets sacked a few days or weeks or months later – between 2012 and 2018, Arsène Wenger was the only FA Cup-winning manager still to be in his job a year later.Yet...
Victory was secured at Peterborough, but not without the visitors learning that a playmaker needs possession to make their playsYou had to feel for Peterborough in a way. Make it through to the last 16 of the FA Cup for the first time in 36 years, bravely hold off one of the world’s best teams for an hour, and your reward? To get schooled by half a billion pounds’ worth of talent on your home turf.But if the skilled resistance of Grant McCann’s team finally crumbled in the last half-hour, in many ways the real reward was simply to be here: in the shop window, live on primetime ITV, bumping Emmerdale off the schedules. Continue reading...
Feisty tackles and underhand methods can fuel the underdogs, and for the favourites the hard work has to start days in advanceThe men’s FA Cup fourth round gets under way on Friday, and from Middlesbrough visiting Manchester United to Boreham Wood’s game at Bournemouth on Sunday, it is full of potential upsets. In theory this should be a normal week of preparation for the top players but when you are facing a side from a lower division things can change in training. Looking back I can see how it affected teammates I played with.Managers would often alter the side for a cup tie against a team who, on paper at least, are weaker and this could affect the squad in...
FA Cup humiliation at hands of Cambridge shows Eddie Howe and long-suffering fans how far the Toon are from successLife comes fast at supporters of Newcastle United. No sooner were they prancing around in Arab headpieces while contemplating the appearance of Kylian Mbappé in the cafes of Jesmond than they had to swallow an FA Cup exit at the hands of a club whose previous claim to fame was the completion of 31 matches without a win.Before we go any further, it should be noted that followers of Sunderland have no cause to chortle; their own run towards competitive irrelevance is such that Cambridge United provide routine opposition. Elsewhere, though, the laughing has been audible. Cambridge’s 1-0 win was a...
FA Cup draw finally delivered for my beloved U’s and revives memories of when Newcastle (briefly) lived in our shadowFor lower-league supporters the FA Cup third-round draw is often more exciting than many of your actual games. I naturally yearn for the 80s simplicity of a velvet bag, Graham Kelly, Ted Croker and Bert Millichip broadcasting from a broom cupboard in total silence. But even on the One Show, with fans awkwardly moved on and off set in some sort of Weekend At Bernie’s zombie tribute it still offers hopes and dreams you just can’t get from Gillingham away.This season it was a scaled-down affair in a Wembley corporate box with Seema Jaswal in charge of the FA Cup winners...