F A Cup
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 4:07 pm
Am I the only one who mourns how lowly the FACup has now become. It seems to be regarded as little more than the Johnstone Pants Trophy.
Despite the bribery of very cheap tickets Bristol City could only muster a third of their usual crowd on Saturday. If that had been 20 years ago the crowd would have been more than their usual home crowd ..... and we would have taken at least 5/600.
This weekend was also entirely devoid of "giant-killings" ....... Tamworth the only real shock, but their scalp of Cheltenham was hardly headline news. Maccy should have been a headline grabbing result but as for several of the last few years both Maccy and Swindon were in the same league it just doesn't seem to be impressive. I suppose this could be said to be the big negative of having automatic promotion/relegation between league and non-league. Last year was the first time since little Sutton beat Coventry that a non-league side beat a Premier league club ...... but again, for many seasons Luton of the conference were in a higher league than Norwich.
FACup 1st round day was always my favourite day of the season ...... ever since seeing Walthamstow Avenue beat Bournemouth 3-1 at Green Pond Road (or have I got that wrong) in about 1970. Leytonstone against Walsall happened in two consecutive years and there were several Ilford games all packed to the rafters. I actually went to the Wimbledon-Leeds United replay in about 1975 in front of over 40,000 at Selhurst Park, not to mention seeing Tooting beat Swindon in a replay, and Harlow beating Southend. In about 1970 Orient, who got no more than 3,000 for league games, was great the night they beat Boston United 2-1 in front of 11,500. And Telford must have brought 5,000 the night I saw them win on penalties at Chesterfield .... and Chasetown took the same number when I saw them beaten at Oldham ...... and that was this century.
Why is it not taken seriously anymore ..... it was always shown across the world - do people really want to see the same old teams playing Champions League games, or is there a different reason.
If the FACup goes completely down the pan, I suppose the phrase "plucky minnow" will be removed from the lexicon forever.
Different pundits have come up with ways of improving the prestige of the FACup ...... but in my opinion there is only answer, and that is to scrap completely the League Cup and JPT.
Despite the bribery of very cheap tickets Bristol City could only muster a third of their usual crowd on Saturday. If that had been 20 years ago the crowd would have been more than their usual home crowd ..... and we would have taken at least 5/600.
This weekend was also entirely devoid of "giant-killings" ....... Tamworth the only real shock, but their scalp of Cheltenham was hardly headline news. Maccy should have been a headline grabbing result but as for several of the last few years both Maccy and Swindon were in the same league it just doesn't seem to be impressive. I suppose this could be said to be the big negative of having automatic promotion/relegation between league and non-league. Last year was the first time since little Sutton beat Coventry that a non-league side beat a Premier league club ...... but again, for many seasons Luton of the conference were in a higher league than Norwich.
FACup 1st round day was always my favourite day of the season ...... ever since seeing Walthamstow Avenue beat Bournemouth 3-1 at Green Pond Road (or have I got that wrong) in about 1970. Leytonstone against Walsall happened in two consecutive years and there were several Ilford games all packed to the rafters. I actually went to the Wimbledon-Leeds United replay in about 1975 in front of over 40,000 at Selhurst Park, not to mention seeing Tooting beat Swindon in a replay, and Harlow beating Southend. In about 1970 Orient, who got no more than 3,000 for league games, was great the night they beat Boston United 2-1 in front of 11,500. And Telford must have brought 5,000 the night I saw them win on penalties at Chesterfield .... and Chasetown took the same number when I saw them beaten at Oldham ...... and that was this century.
Why is it not taken seriously anymore ..... it was always shown across the world - do people really want to see the same old teams playing Champions League games, or is there a different reason.
If the FACup goes completely down the pan, I suppose the phrase "plucky minnow" will be removed from the lexicon forever.
Different pundits have come up with ways of improving the prestige of the FACup ...... but in my opinion there is only answer, and that is to scrap completely the League Cup and JPT.