We Can Be Heroes, Just For One Day

By: Rob | November 7th, 2009

fa-cup This weekend, is a magical weekend in English Football, it’s the first round of the FA Cup. While in other countries knockout cup trophies don’t seem to have the same romance, or weight, there is something genuinely special about the FA Cup.

Over the last few years, as English Football has grown and grown, talk comes that the Romance of the Cup is gone, and indeed, that it just isn’t as important in the Champions League age as it was years ago.

But as I stood watching my team lose yesterday, I realised that is all wrong. The FA Cup is still incredibly exciting, and gives small teams a chance to put themselves up against absolutely anybody.

Besides, try telling Bath City, Barrow or Kettering Town fans that the Cup has lost its magic – they’re all into the next round and ready to face up against even bigger teams.

Perhaps my perspective comes from supporting a lower league club (Bristol Rovers since you ask). Our success in recent years has been as measured by Cup scalps as it has by league position finishes. Even when we flirted with the basement of what is now League Two, we could still look forward to the chance of a Cup Run.

In the 2007-8 Season we had a moment in the sun, in which we made it to the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup (including a win over Southampton who vanquished us yesterday). It was an amazing buzz, to know we were in the last 8 teams in a cup competition which everyone is involved.

It isn’t a cheap cup run, like the League Cup either. I think big teams still care about the FA Cup. If you look at the winners over the last 10 years, there is that Portsmouth year, but other than that, by and large, it’s big four teams that take the final prize.

There is something magical about the fact that your team might get a chance to line up against a team of multi-million pound players all playing the game of their lives in the hope of a scalp. I have to wonder why the Cups don’t generate so much excitement in Spain and Italy, for example – unless they do and its passed me by.

So catch a Cup game this weekend and revel in the romance, and blow a big raspberry to those who would have you believe that there isn’t any magic in the FA Cup. Because it quite simply is not true.

Although fans of Paulton Rovers might not agree. Ouch.