FA Cup Third Round Day

The first Saturday in Januray is FA Cup third round day and I always like to be near a radio between 3pm and 5pm on this day because of the sheer excitement and entertainment that is prodouced. All the teams that have qualified are drawn out at random so there is no seedings leading to a range of games from top 6 meeting each other to huge mismatches. So Cardiff of the Championship get to play Chasetown of the Midland Division 1 (thats 135 league places between the two). Chasetown are in the 8 teir of English football and well below the point where teams are professional. The list continues, Swansea v Havant and Waterlooville (82 places), Wolves v Cambridge City (66 places), Everton v Oldham (50 places), Norwich v Bury (45 places) and Huddersfield v Birmingham (41 places. What makes this really special is that the minnows do relly well and win on a number of occassions. So Chasetown took the lead even thoigh they eventaully lost 3-1, Havant and Waterlooville drew 1-1 and will replay, Cambridge took the lead but eventually lost 2-1, Oldham won 1-0, Bury drew 1-1 and will replay and Huddersfiled won 2-1. The mixture of the minnows playing the big boys and winning is the ingrediant which makes this so special. The fact that makes this even more stratling is that Chasetown's next game after this is against Leighton Town although not at Bell CLose. Could you imagine Cardiff v Leighton Town next year. I am sure that the fans are hoping!