There was a lad in my year at school that we called the FA Cup. He had many nicknames but being a big lad most were said behind his back. When I was young the FA Cup was probably the biggest annual football event. On a given Saturday in May the family would gather round the television and pick a team to follow for the afternoon.
I would generally pick the team playing in blue or anyone who had a connection with the Blues. My brother Dean would always pick the other team just to be contentious. As time passed and the chance of our beloved Blues actually appearing in the final disappeared so we slowly lost interest and Cup Final Saturdays taken up with other pursuits. I drifted into cricket (forgive me!) and my brother became a scratch golfer (cocky git!).
Every year I have set the video and taped the big game to watch when I got home from standing in a cricket field for eight hours. And annually I have rewound the tape and not bothered viewing the match. This has been because the games have been an anti climax. Anyone remember the
The commentators excuse the pathetic lack of action by claiming there is too much at stake whilst the millions around the world scream at the television that it’s a cup final for crying out loud ‘put some effort into it’. The all round boredom of the final, the apathy of some of the ‘big’ clubs and the all too familiar winners have led to the declining crowds and the lack of importance attached to the cup. Until now.
I told my Villa Sky colleague that the Carling/ Worthington/ Milk Cup was a tin pot cup unless your team got to the semi final and then it became the most important cup in the world. Well now we are playing
The FA Cup final is the most prestigious, most sought after, most special trophy in the universe, I think! I know there are still teams like Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool left but as the old saying goes ‘anything can happen over ninety minutes’.
Liverpool
Damn, I keep forgetting