Excitement of the FA Cup still burns bright

Nov 7 2009 Liverpool Echo

THIS is FA Cup weekend and all over the country footballers who play for clubs outside the top two divisions will have been feeling a little extra buzz of excitement in their work on the training ground.

I could not help smiling when I read caretaker manager Les Parry’s remarks after Tranmere’s 4-1 defeat to Swindon Town last Saturday. He said lifting the players for their next game would not be such a problem because the FA Cup would do part of the job for him.

He was exactly right.

The world’s oldest knockout competition still has the power to turn seasoned professionals into excitable schoolboys. I have been in the game for three decades and it still does it to me.

Players, managers, coaches, physiotherapists and fans all continue to believe the Cup can make football fairytales come true. And each year, for a few people in the game, it does.

I know there is nothing particularly romantic about Tranmere’s first round tie this afternoon at home to Leyton Orient, another League One club.

But any team progressing into the third round enters a new world of possibilities. The surviving minnows from the lower divisions and non-league will be in the hat with the big boys.

Players think about the once-in-a-lifetime chance of running out at Anfield or Old Trafford, of pitting their skills against a Steven Gerrard or a Wayne Rooney. Chairmen and directors think about the prospect of a bumper payday to ease the financial pressures of running a small club.

The FA Cup is where hard-nosed financial considerations are drawn into the world of chance and romance.

A lucrative cup run can make a huge difference to small league clubs like Tranmere and non-league outfits like Fleetwood Town, where I work on the coaching staff. We play Northampton Town in the first round today. Believe me, I’m excited.