Cup of Woe

So that was Towns cup run for another year. Fallen at the first hurdle - again. Not a lot different from most cup runs in recent years- except that this time I actually had the impression that Town wanted to win and did us proud. Who knows, they might even have won if the ref had not intervened with his overzealous sending off of Liam Trotter.

A strange beast the FA Cup. For as long as any of us can remember - and many decades before that, it has arrogantly been labelled 'the greatest cup competition in the world'. And every year we are reminded that the 3rd round date in early January is the most exciting day in the season. The evidence of our own eyes has been telling us something different for quite a while now.

For reasons that I have never quite fathomed, it has become acceptable for clubs not to try in the Cup. In fact so acceptable has this outrageous behaviour become that disinterested millionaires of average ability for a 'big club' like Reading are praised for their honesty when they say they can't be arsed (but we still expect you the paying public to turn up and pay good money to see us go through the motions).

In fact humble Reading are a fine example of the depths the FA Cup has sunk in recent years. A couple of years back, when they were, like us a 'Championship' (i.e second division) side, they memorably played a reserve team at Premier League West Brom - who also played a reserve side. Both teams it seemed had other things on their minds than' the greatest cup competition in the world'. The inference is that the mind-numbing tedium of playing for nothing (other than money) in the bowels of the Premier League is more important than a stab at 'glory' in the cup.

This barmy logic took its lead from the disinterest (or plain ignorance) of foreign managers at the 'Big 4', who have such vast squads that the only way those on the fringes that have not already been loaned out to 'small clubs' can get a game - is to play in the FA Cup or League Cup second string. The relentless and destructive intrusion of media money and Champions League money that has effectively destroyed the Premier League as a meaningful competition has now created the ultimate irony that Arsenal's second team is probably the third strongest team in the country.

So useless had Town become in Cup competitions, that I have not bothered going to Cup matches for 5 years. If the club can't be bothered and seem eager to get knocked out, why should I shell out vast quantities of money to see half a team go through the motions? By and large I have been entirely justified in my stance too.

But this time I thought it might be different - so I went. And glory-be, it was different. I'm not totally convinced that Portsmouth ever got out of third gear - but ten man Town gave them a right good run for their money - and could, with a bit of luck (or Paul Robinson, not David James in the Pompey goal)have won.

In true cup tradition there was even a convenient excuse for Town's exit - the referee. This only holds water if you blank your mind to Billy Clarke's astonishing miss and David James' excellence - but the sending off was indeed a tad harsh.

It was also pure theatre to the cynical observer. Firstly, although to be fair Trotter's tackle was rash - and would have outraged the Town crowd if it had been perpetrated by shall we say a Burnley player, he made little contact with Mendes who promptly writhed around as though shot. Meanwhile in the background that paragon of non-contact football and fair play, Joe Jordan was to be seen mouthing like a beserker to the 4th official. So a combination of Johnny Foreigner cheating, bigoted touchline cheating - and yes, let's be fair rash inexperience from Trotter, coupled with inept, overzealous officialdom combined to spoil Town's day.

Except the seething injustice of it all probably stirred Town up a bit and made the game the occasion it was. Now, as the cliché goes, we can forget about the cup and concentrate on the league. And there's the rub - for the life of me I can't forget about the cup.

You see, by far the best of my rose-tinted memories of being a Town fan are based on FA Cup 'glory'. And my very worst are of glorious FA Cup failure. Before Bobby Robson pitched up we had never, ever got to the quarter finals. Think about that... in the club's entire history it had never won rounds 3, 4 and 5... three matches. In those days we were actually trying to win. I suppose much of the problem was that the opposition was trying too. For 91 clubs, the entire season depended on a cup run.

So when Town set off on an epic cup run in 1975 - it was truly epic stuff. Don Revie's Leeds were champions and cup favourites, but we knocked them out over a mere 4 matches. Each in its own way was an epic... culminating in a 3rd replay at Filbert Street that will never be forgotten by any Town fan privileged to be there. The feeling when 'that' Clive Woods curler went in was quite simply the most astonishing moment in my football-supporting life.

The next round saw us dispose of cup holders Liverpool in another epic. History was being made. As you know we were firm favourites to beat West Ham in the Semi... and quite how we didn't is something only referee Clive Thomas really knows the answer to. That semi final replay defeat at Stamford Bridge remains my most disappointing memory - and once again of course, the referee was to blame.

My other great Cup memory is needless to say the 1978 cup final... which sticks in my mind far more than the UEFA Cup triumph and any number of good league finishes in the top division. Which is probably why I don't buy this nonsense about the league being more important than the cup. It isn't. Memories, real memories, are made in the Cup. All of which makes Town's recent puerile efforts in the competition all the more baffling. Not only did we need the money a cup run would have provided - we devalued our heritage.

Why have all of us from the FA downwards allowed the FA Cup to dwindle into irrelevance? It really is quite baffling. In an era where money dictates who is going to come first,, second, third and fourth in the mind-numbing tedium of today's Premier League with infinite predictability, year on year, the cup is really the only competition 88 club's are playing for. Yet most of them don't care. So why should we? Truth is, we don't, not any more - not really. And that truly is a woeful state of affairs.