I think the allure of the cup is still there.
Non league Newport beating recent Premier League champions Leicester at a packed Rodney Parade and the field in shit.
It’s also a significant source of income for lower league teams who can get to rounds 3/4/5 and draw a big away.
I’ve knocked good enjoyment out of round 3 anyway
Newport County are not a non league club.
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Aren’t they?
Just checked, league 2, my bad
Still, it was thrilling viewing
The FA Cup Third Round results mean that Liverpool’s FA Premier League games v Fulham (A) and Cardiff (A) will go ahead as scheduled on the weekends of March 16th and April 6th respectively.
The last thing we needed was a fixture pile up caused by a tournament that now has a similar significance to that of the Guinness Soccer Sixes of the late 1980s.
There was a time when a good FA cup run was very important for a clubs bottom line. Now it’s pretty much irrrelavant and getting top four or avoiding relegation is the be all and end all for clubs. Cups are just a distraction. There are too many champions league games now as well so top clubs have less time to rest players so FA cup weekend is like a recovery weekend.
Players run around a hell of a lot more now than they did in the 1980s. Liverpool’s squad is not as big as that of Manchester City or even Tottenham. In a similar way to how Leicester going out of the FA Cup in the third round in 2016 was a boost to their title prospects, it should help Liverpool get some much needed rest and recovery.
Presuming Manchester City stay in the League Cup and FA Cup, they are likely to have away games at Everton and Manchester United pushed into midweek dates late in the season, which could rightly mess them up.
There was something tremendously noble about teams’ willingness to potentially destroy themselves chasing early round FA Cup ties which went to multiple replays.
In 1991, for instance, Arsenal were in the middle of a title race with Liverpool, but it didn’t persuade them that their Round 4 tie against Leeds was worth giving up, and they ended up having to play four (four) furiously fought matches, including two periods of extra-time, to eventually get through it.
They received some karma from that when Liverpool were dragged into their own epic saga against Everton, which would cost Liverpool the greatest manager then in English football, and which pretty much decided that title race in Arsenal’s favour.
1991 finalists Nottingham Forest eventually put out the previous years’ finalists Crystal Palace after a three match saga in Round 3, which I’m sure @mickee321 will remember from John Salako’s last second 45 yard lob equaliser at the end of extra-time.
A time of tremendous nobility and stoicism in English football, when Charge of the Light Brigade-style heroic failure was serious currency.
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There was the four match Woolwich v Liverpool FA Cup semi final in 1980 as well. There was a league meeting between them sandwiched in the middle of the four FA Cup meetings, possibly after the first replay. They played five times in something like 17-18 days from mid April to early May with the semi final saga concluding at the somewhat unusual choice of semi final venues, Highfield Road, Coventry.
1991 was unique @Sidney in that we saw Monday night games were introduced
that salako goal i remember and Lee chapman also vs arsenal
Yes. There were definitely Monday night games in the 1991 FA Cup. I think Norwich beating holders Manchester United in Round 5 may have been one - West Ham beating Everton in Round 6 definitely was.
But Sky Sports didn’t come into being until April 15th, 1991. I think BSB (British Satellite Broadcasting) must have had the rights to these games but BSB to the best of my knowledge ceased to exist when Sky Sports started, and was subsumed into it.
The 4-4 draw between Everton and Liverpool was apparently carried live on the Cablelink channel in Dublin. I only found this out when I went into school the next day and found out that everybody else had been watching it live, while I was standing around in the kitchen listening on grainy medium wave reception on BBC Radio 2.
I did see the third match, which Everton won 1-0, live on the Cablelink channel with commentary provided by Martin Tyler and Andy Gray.
The BSB arrangement was I imagine the reason why Martin Tyler always commentated on and narrated the Serie A highlights programme which RTE showed on Monday nights after Christmas from 1990 to 1992 inclusive. Sky Sports had Serie A rights for the 1991-92 season, including live games. They also showed live Bundesliga games on Friday nights during the 91/92 season, as well as Scottish football. This ceased for the 1992-93 season when Sky took over Premier League rights and ditched everything else. Channel 4 famously took over the Serie A rights at this stage.
Brighton are bogey teaming us again.
I’ve a bad feeling about this one.
Peno.
We’ll miss it though…
Yeeeeesssss. The jinx did the job.
Salah scores
Salah do do do do do
I still have a bad feeling about this.
That’ll fuckin do
Fifteen more of them would do the job
I couldn’t think of a better way for us to have won today than a 1-0 with a penalty.
A 5th penalty of the season. One behind Utd who have received the most this season.
City have one.