14 responses so far

• 1 Simon // Mar 7, 2008 at 10:13 am

  I suppose the writer of this article is a typical supporter of one of the big club’s who are on our TV’s every week.
  The magic of the F.A. Cup is that occasionally the smaller clubs get a chance in the lime light.
  Remember that some of those unfashionable clubs were founder members of the game!

• 2 steve // Mar 7, 2008 at 11:15 am

  Oh dear, sounds like this bitter little chaps team has been knocked out of the cup, either that or he`s just ignorant. Can`t wait for the sunday quarters myself, be great not having to watch the so called big four, might see some real drama for a change. More importantly we might actually see a different name on the FA cup in May, the big four have shared it for the last god knows how many years and if thinks thats good for the game then he`s got less nouse than Shearer.

• 3 Dave Garnet // Mar 7, 2008 at 1:05 pm

  Its the FA Cup, the greatest club cup competition in the world. What do you want to see? It seems if you had your way we wouldnt have to bother, we could just have 2 semis Arsenal v Chelsea and Man Utd v Liverpool every year, yawn!!!!!!! Football without the smaller (underdog) teams would be the same few teams playing each other over and over again, how boring would that be. These smaller teams and their respective supporters have earned the right to a little bit of success even if its only a semi final spot. C’mon Middlesborough, Portsmouth, West Brom, Cardiff, Bristol and Barnsley!!!!!
  If you are not excited at the 2 so called lesser cup ties dont watch.!!!!! True football fans are exactly that want to watch English footie who ever!

• 4 ian james // Mar 7, 2008 at 1:10 pm

  If you just step back a bit, there’s one important thing to remember here: from right-wing Nazi scum-jobs to people who believe 12-foot-lizards are our masters through to zealots who say we’ll die in flames come the Apocalypse, almost anyone on the ‘blogosphere’ can create a blog and say what they like, their blog existence somehow making them official voices when they’re as far from that as can possibly be.

  Our friend ‘Spoiler’ is probably a bit like you and me. Normal, not completely special, and, in the context of life, a bit ordinary (possibly someone who phones up 606, sounds as if he’s coached by village idiots and then signs off, clenching his fist in triumph as if his oratory just sprung up a level to the grandeur of Martin Luther King). But he’s got his own website and, from the above, a chip on his shoulder the size of Edinburgh, so we are bidden to assume his words are worth noting.

  On this one visit, that assumption was built on sand.

  But what’s also special about the blogosphere (don’t you hate that word already?) is that there are plenty of other websites worth your visit. May I draw your attention to the Guardian Unlimited site at http://www.guardian.co.uk? The sport and footie sections are terrific, written by intelligent journalists with cogent viewpoints (plus a podcast hosted by the excellent James Richardson). Personally, I’d always been unaware of its existence, but it really is top stuff and it has amongst its ranks no hacks whose only objective is to masturbate about the top four clubs in the country. Like our Spoiler friend.

  But then again, Spoiler does what he says on the tin: pouring his yokel viewpoints all over any good sense.

  A neat trick.

• 5 Ryan Bailey // Mar 7, 2008 at 1:25 pm

  You don’t have to tell me about the magic of the FA Cup - I’m a Wimbledon fan and the greatest day in our history (14th May 1988) came courtesy of the competition.

  I was merely making the point that these ties are all less glamorous than, say, the European games on TV this week. There’s no shame in a lack of glamour, it’s what the real game is all about.

• 6 KiskosWBA // Mar 7, 2008 at 1:49 pm

  You are a tit.

• 7 Harry Kook // Mar 7, 2008 at 2:07 pm

  Ryan Bailey if what you really meant was they were less glamourous but actually just what the cup needed then why did you compare the ties to an incontinent tramp? And whats the European cup got to do with the FA Cup?
  Your article is pathetic and your attempts to back track and apologise for it were even more pathetic.
  Don`t give up your day job.

• 8 Arthur- man utd // Mar 7, 2008 at 4:34 pm

  Apalling article, for christs sake if you ain`t got anything interesting to say then just shut up you little weasel.
  This is the most open and interesting FA cup for years and youre belittling it. Get a life.

• 9 baggieboy07 // Mar 7, 2008 at 9:56 pm

  spoiler seems to me like the sort of person that was bummed on a regular basis by his dad when he was only a child.

  the F.A. cup this year is excellent! the only shame as a west brom fan is that man united and chelsea weren.t drawn against eachother ,that way if we do beat rovers then there would be less chance of meeting either one .

  i think the best think you can do spoiler is keep off the bong as think about the more fundamental things in life

  good luck to all the teams left in this years F.A. cup

• 10 Halesowen Wolf // Mar 7, 2008 at 11:46 pm

  We have been knocked out, but I agree with the above comments. Its the Magic of the Cup, Gives hope to all teams.

  There has been some great Cup Killings & if the Big Clubs want to be little it then let them do it at their own peril.

• 11 Wolvesgirl2008 // Mar 8, 2008 at 9:39 am

  So yet another member of the ‘FA Cup is only exciting if the big boys win it’ brigade comes out and shoots off their over sized mouth without the brain capacity to back it up.

  Will somebody please explain to me how on earth watching a Chelsea v Man Utd final is in anyway magical?

  I respect success, but come on. Me thinks these clubs and their fans underestimate the lower leagues and indeed the lower half of their own division. It is completely disrespectful the way the ‘Big Clubs’ approach such fixtures. I think they forget that without these teams the whole league structure that they exist within and proudly head every season would not be there in the first place.

• 12 The Moore the Bednar // Mar 9, 2008 at 7:22 am

  As proved yesterday Wolvesgirl.

  Well done to Portsmouth and Barnsley. Looks like somebody will be spending the day in a soup kitchen, talking to a incontinent tramp. Rather than watching the cup final eh!!!!

• 13 OutlawJoseyWales // Mar 9, 2008 at 3:19 pm

  Now it’s brilliant - the danger was Man U or Chelsea would have styed in and ended up clobbering cardiff in the final. Now thy’ve all gone, we can have some fun. come on cardiff…

  Oh and, thanks Ian James for writing an essay telling us to “read The Guardian” because its got some good writers. Well done. How long did it take you to fiind their Website? We can get the views of the mainstream press whenever we want without digging into the blogosphere. We’re here for something different.

• 14 Jack Baggie // Mar 9, 2008 at 8:24 pm

  Boing boing, off to wembley.

  Football is the real winner the past two days I feel.
  It just shows off how good the championship actually is, fuck the premiership, lower leagues where all the action is :D