Football Diary

by Patrick O'Connor

In America they have a holiday on Groundhog Day, in English football Underdog Day is held several times a year.

It’s known as the FA Cup when smaller teams take on bigger teams in the most famous knock-out football tournament in the world.

The FA Cup never ceases to amaze. Why is it that players from smaller, less glamorous clubs, always seem to raise their game to overpower opponents who on paper should wipe the floor with them? 

Never is this more evident than in the first round of the competition when a host of non-league clubs get the chance to pit their wits against opposition from League One and Two.

Last Saturday’s games saw Shrewsbury, Exeter and Swindon all turfed out of the competition whilst Southend, Carlisle, Darlington, Lincoln and Luton face replays.   This means there is still a fair sprinkling of non-league sides in the second round when the magic of the FA Cup really comes into focus.  

For victory at the next stage brings forth the third round draw when the really big boys enter.   This is the occasion when a part-time club which exists on crowds of just several hundred and whose players return to work on Mondays as plumbers, electricians, school teachers etc could find themselves up against the millionaire superstars of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal.   Which can also mean a live television date and the sort of media exposure they may well experience only once in a lifetime.

Those non-league clubs who claimed the scalps of higher opponents at the weekend are already starting to dream ...

Another of the really great things about football is the amount of debate it prompts. Anybody can become an expert, whether from the stand, the armchair or the pub bar.  t’s the lifeblood of the game. Who played well? Who had a stinker? Does the referee need glasses? 

Feeding the debate is the professional pundit from the sanctuary of a television or radio studio, the columns of a newspaper or blogging his opinions via the Internet.   But football’s current Mr Grumpy – no, not Alex Ferguson, but one of his apprentices, Roy Keane, is not too keen on television punditry.  The Sunderland manager questions their so-called expert status and accuses them of creating unnecessary debate.  What Keane has probably failed to grasp is that by making these comments publicly, he himself is taking part in the process.  With their side hovering in the bottom three, Sunderland fans may well feel that their manager has more pressing things to worry about.

Now, I hate to say ‘I told you so’ when it comes to people losing their jobs, especially in the current economic climate, but two managers tipped for the chop in this column a few weeks ago have already gone – League One bosses Stan Ternent (Huddersfield) and John Ward (Carlisle).  Another under pressure again is Manchester City’s Mark Hughes whose side lost at home to Tottenham on Sunday.

City’s Arabian owners are gearing up to splash out millions in the January transfer window but will they trust Hughes to carry out the spending spree?  A few more setbacks and he may well be on his way before then but on the sort of compensation package that would make Ternent and Ward’s pay-offs seem like pocket money.

Many people tend to forget that playing for or managing the underdog is light years away from the mega-bucks lifestyle of the Premier League.

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