It’s had its knockers over the years, the FA Cup. Many say that it has never recovered from Manchester United’s decision to spend the opening weeks of January 2000 on the beaches of Rio rather than in the third round. People can also point under-strength team selections and dwindling crowds, but there’s life in the old dog yet. This season has proved that.
Think Jermaine Beckford at Old Trafford, Shane Long and Reading at Anfield. Think Notts County’s win at Wigan, a cash-strapped Crystal Palace hunting down Wolves. Think of Stoke battering and bullying Arsenal out of the competition, of Spurs and Leeds going head to head. Think of the FA Cup and smile. That’s how it always used to be, and how it always should be.
To pick a standout tie out of this weekend’s fifth-round clashes is difficult, at least it is if you’re not from the south coast. Chelsea will be overwhelming favourites to beat Cardiff City at home, while Tottenham’s trip to Bolton and Manchester City’s home clash with Stoke each have their different attractions. Reading – reborn under Brian McDermott – and West Brom will fight for a place in the quarter-finals, while League Two Notts County will fancy their chances at Craven Cottage. But eyes are inevitably drawn to St Mary’s.
The FA Cup has long helped provide distractions from problems elsewhere, and so it is perhaps no coincidence that many of the clubs taking their place in the fifth round have had to deal with unhelpful off-field headlines this season.
Portsmouth’s problems are too many and too serious to go into details here, while their weekend opponents Southampton haven’t had an easy ride this campaign either; they started it on minus 10 points. Cardiff were facing a second winding-up order this week, Notts County are still shrouded in mystery, Crystal Palace haven’t got two pennies to rub together, Reading and Derby have used the Cup to boost flagging league fortunes. John Terry and Wayne Bridge’s teams are still in the hat too.
If the FA Cup has been degraded, dismissed and defamed in recent seasons, then it has come back with a bang this campaign. Chelsea are still the heavy odds on favourites, with the winners surely coming from a pool of the Blues, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Manchester City, but it is what the competition has represented to many this season that it almost more important than the eventual winners.
The Cup has given clubs a new hope that things can be better, that off-field problems don’t have to ruin on-field performances, that some pride and glory can be found in the most trying of circumstances.
Just like it always has, and just like it always will.
Tags: