Fabulous cup tie between Stockport and Bolton tonight. Such a shame teams higher up the pyramid don’t approach the competition with the same enthusiasm any more.
It’s a Manchester derby, Stockport seem to raise their game in these kinds of fixtures, they beat Man City when they were utterly abysmal and City were running away with the old Division 1. There’s also this one: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/981196.stm Forgot Stockport hadn’t won in 14 games! (They also had a long winless run the previous season after actually being in the play-off places.) Bolton like Blackburn had a stuttering start to the 2000/01 season, and that result along with our beating them three days later made me think we were bound for promotion, but alas it was far from the case.
It was one of the best games I've seen in a long time. There's life outside the EPL. Plenty of decent non-league teams on the doorstep. We went to watch Wealdstone v Barnet last weekend. Superb entertainment. Nice beer. Swearing and smoking encouraged in all parts of the ground. No taking the knee. Magic
The thing that always strikes me is that, the further down the pyramid you go, in general the more honest the players are (of course there are exceptions). By that I mean not just that there is less conning of the ref etc., which there is, but that they continue to try for a positive outcome. Most higher ranked teams coming back from a dire situation to get a late equaliser would have tended to then shut up shop and been happy to take a chance on a penalty shoot-out, rather than risk defeat by continuing to attack in extra time.
I think last night's game proved that football doesn't need the most technically gifted players to be an exciting spectacle. Just take two honest teams intent on attacking, a ref that doesn't want to be the centre of attention, a noisy and passionate crowd (nobody with their bloody mobile phone out taking photos last night!) - put it all together and hey-presto, you get two hours of great entertainment.
Exactly so, which is why it's so tragic that most people have been brainwashed into thinking the Premier League is the be all and end all and they miss out almost entirely on games like this - especially in the Cup.
Really looking forward to the third round draw. The daughters fella is a Mansfield season ticket holder, he was jubilant after their win at Sunderland and yesterday again after a fine win at Doncaster. Hoping now for Mansfield to draw Watford and a great day out.
Ah Field Mill. My brothers and I went the night after seeing SEJ and we won 2-1 ( I think,I was 14 at the time) in the old Division Three. I can still hear the stadium announcer " Next we t'Stags are at 'ome to Chesterfield ( or someone similar),t'following week t' Stags are away at Shrewsbury..." We were attacked leaving the ground and had to seek refuge in an auto repair shop.
You went to see Elton in 1968? That doesn’t seem right. My only visit to Field Mill was in the ‘79 promotion season. It was a comfortable 3-0 win and I remember Roger Joslyn slotting in one of our goals.
Our fans are just as guilty as any of the big clubs in dismissing the FA Cup as irrelevant. Thick ****s.
I meant our fans in general are thick *****, not the specific posters in this thread. Though I suppose it is a bit of a catch-all statement...
Barrow beating Ipswich 2-0 in their FA Cup replay to make the fourth round for the first time in their history (they didn't even make it the previous time they were a league club) - a club that were out of the Football League for 48 years until 2020. It's quite remarkable that a club should be away from the FL for so long and eventually manage to return as the same club, Southport and Workington still haven't made it back up and don't look like close to doing so, Accrington made it back up but as a different club.
Oops I lost track of the fact that the second round is still going on, of course the third round always starts in the new year (with the exception of 1999/00 I believe).
