F A Cup

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rechitski kinzhal
Posts: 140
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 7:24 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.
Ilford Dagger
Posts: 111
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 7:59 pm

Sadly you are right re the FA Cup which does seem to have lost it's appeal for many, the highest crowd on Saturday was at Grimsby a Skrill Club ,many FL Clubs had poor gates inc Bristol City, the smaller Clubs seem to treat it seriously but the bigger the club then the less the interest certainly until at least 3rd/4th round & a chance of playing a Prem team.
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Mikins
Posts: 294
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 7:45 pm

its lost its magic as theres so few giant killings anymore. even the betting companies have given up offering ludicrous odds on matches, Daventry were only 7/1 to beat chesterfield. i think 70/1 would have been more realistic. also the draws are rather dull, by the time the prem teams come in at most there will be 1 or 2 conference clubs, and a few lg2 clubs left, if everyone started together and we had the chance every year of drawing someone fantastic from the off it'd put a big sparkle back in things. okay so we'd probably still get Barnet. but the prospect of a Arsenal/Man Utd tie would whet the appetite somewhat.
Sorry about your damn luck!
Kevin
Posts: 526
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 1:55 pm

I kind of get the original posters point, but my FA Cup recollections are that (media-wise) it doesn't really get going until the 3rd round.

Crowd-wise, well a lot of clubs have less coming through the gates...and I can't see that any Bristol City fan would be particularly whetting their lips at the thought of "plucky minnows" D&R coming to town.

Having said that, I still remember the 1st round 5-4 game against Orient all those years ago (was never a corner either ;-) ) - some years (and it would seem this year is a prime example) the draw just isn't that interesting.
Tranced
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 3:56 pm

Doesn't help that the emphasis on Premier League clubs gets bigger each year. Too many people just don't care until round 3.
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