Up For The Cup

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In recent days I've covered racism, war and global warming, so I'm going to keep the big issues at the forefront, with a little fact about the FA Cup. Today Man Utd and Chelsea both got dumped out, by Portsmouth and Barnsley respectively, and why both sides are so unpopular was summed up in two separate incidents - firstly Alex Ferguson's wild-eyed rant about the referee. Yeah, they should've had a penalty, but I've watched enough Man Utd games to know they're owed a couple of dodgy decisions against them. I can still remember them knocking Man City out of the Cup with a penalty that was given for someone standing next to Roy Keane. Then in the Barnsley-Chelsea match, Barnsley were 1-0 up and their striker was about to go through on goal, when Carvalho literally kicked him in the shins to stop him. Not only should he have been sent off, but probably imprisoned. So good riddance to the whingers and cheaters, it's going to be Bristol Rovers v Barnsley at Wembley this year, and none of the 'Big Five' (that's Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool and Havant & Waterlooville) will play in the semi-finals.

The last time that neither Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United reached the FA Cup semi-finals was in 1987, when Coventry lifted the cup.

The glitziest possible line-up will feature Portsmouth, Barnsley, Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion. I know it's subjective but scrolling through geeks' paradise http://www.rsssf.com/ it looks like you'd have to go back to before World War 2 to find a motleyer crew left at this stage. The media have already started asking whether it's good for football to have such a farcical FA Cup, to which the short answer is yes. I've been watching godawful finals between the big teams for as long as I can remember. The first one I saw was Spurs-Forest in 1991 (a deceptively good final to start with) and it reached it's nadir with Chelsea's 1-0 win over Man Utd last year - I ended up going outside to throw pennies at a wall it was so dull. All the teams who focussed on finishing mid-table rather than go for glory must feel sick now. As a Man City fan, I can stand tall, though - we didn't go out by fielding a weakened team - we were knocked out by a balloon.