Not Pressed-up and going nowhere

[dave.woodhall]

FA Cup final day was massive back when I was a kid, although that's probably in part due to it being a rare chance to watch a live game on telly.

It's weird to think that there's now a generation that would find it hard to believe that FA Cup games were once massive, pretty much regardless of who the away team were the cup games were nearly always well above the league average attendances.

Like when we got 43,000 for a cup replay against a team from division three and a month later 15,000 for a league game.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

The first FA Cup games I saw at Villa Park were 1967/68, both against sides in our division.
R3 Millwall ( 34,703 in the cup, 14,886 in the league )   
R4 Rotherham (33,442 in the cup, 13,673 in the league )

[darren woolley]

Great read Dave I also love FA Cup third round day it's a shame that the Premier League and Champions League is all everybody cares about apart from Wigan who won it I bet they wouldn't swop that win over Man City for Premier League status.

[chrisw1]

On the council estate I grew up on, there was not a person out on FA Cup Final day, irrespective of who was playing. I can reluctantly accept that relegation would be so catastrophic to the club that we have to prioritise, but why teams that are safe don't give it respect is beyond me.

This is what I don't understand. There are teams who haven't won a trophy in decades, won't go down or finish in the top four, yet they still put their reserves out in the FA CUp.

This is where I am.  I am probably a bit less misty eyed about the FA cup than some.  I'd love to win it but am hard nosed enough to realise the medium term future of the club would be better served by avoiding relegation.  But for established PL clubs with deeper squads and in no danger, I can't understand why they aren't busting a gut to win a pot.  Fair play to Wolves who are fighting on all fronts with a small squad, but still put out a strong team.

[Ad@m]

4-4-3 and we still lost 

To be fair, we always struggle with the extra man!

[Hookeysmith]

Relegation or FA cup win?

FA cup everyday

Maybe that's selfish as one of the older fans we have seen the lot but that is the holy grail to me.

We should be grateful that at least we made the final twice in the last 20 years (albeit abject surrender when we did) there are teams that have never had a sniff in their entire lifetime.

When the FA sanctioned the biggest club at the time to skip a year from their own top trophy for promotional and financial gains then you knew the cup was doomed. The only way back is for it to be seeded and weighted in favour of the bigger teams as the thought of leaving the draw to chance (the thing that make the cup for me) is abhorrent to them in case they draw another Prem team

[cdbearsfan]

Relegation or FA cup win?

It's a toughie. Having thought about it, though, I reckon I would rather win the FA Cup than get relegated.

[Chris Smith]

I think our chances of winning the FA Cup are better if we stay in the Premier League. Given that the odds are against us having the squad to do it this year then I would argue that trying to make sure we stay up gives more chance of doing it at some point in the future.

[chrisw1]

I think our chances of winning the FA Cup are better if we stay in the Premier League. Given that the odds are against us having the squad to do it this year then I would argue that trying to make sure we stay up gives more chance of doing it at some point in the future.

Exactly.  Given the money in modern football and FFP, relegation is a disaster.  Stay up, consolidate, retain some of our best players and then we can fight on all fronts.

[nordenvillain]

I think our chances of winning the FA Cup are better if we stay in the Premier League. Given that the odds are against us having the squad to do it this year then I would argue that trying to make sure we stay up gives more chance of doing it at some point in the future.

Exactly.  Given the money in modern football and FFP, relegation is a disaster.  Stay up, consolidate, retain some of our best players and then we can fight on all fronts.

This and I can remember us winning it in 57 ! We have to do all possible to avoid relegation that would lead to us losing all of our best players.

[in exile]

I'd much rather stay in the Premier League than win the FA Cup

[Rico]

Does anyone remember when we played Watford at Villa park in 83 (I think). There was well over 40,000. Pretty sure it was 3rd round. The FA cup back then was pure magic. Shame what's happened to it now, but I agree for now with some of the other posters that our best chance of actually winning the cup is to avoid relegation and kick on from there.

[cdbearsfan]

It was the Fifth Round. A photo from the match was on the Subbuteo set I had as a youth.

Here...

I always thought the image was of them scoring, but they're actually putting it just wide as shown from about four minutes in on the video below (from the Barnes free kick).

Highlights of the match...

[Drummond]

www.thebirminghampress.com

Read it and weep.

I can't be arsed. 


I agree with it Mr W. It's so frustrating, that what was the greatest cup competition of them all is reduced to what we see now. Clubs can't be arsed, so the fans can't be. So the TV companies can't be, so the clubs can't be. Which just means the spiral continues until they don't bother with it any more.

I refuse to watch any of it now we're out. I just hope all the remaining 'big clubs' get drawn against each other repeatedly and let other clubs have some fun.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Bollocks to the FA Cup - I can't wait for us to survive this season so that I can have "17th in the league, 2019/20" tattooed across my tits.