It is the final game of the English football season and the English Football version of the NFL’s Super Bowl. It is a day when people get together all across the British Isles, have a BBQ perhaps, drink a few beers and watch the big game. Last year I described how this game was seen as the Gateway to the Summer, for once completed you knew the season was done and it really felt like summer had arrived.

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Wasn’t it great to see Arsenal getting dumped out of the F.A. Cup this weekend? Now just Chelsea out of the “big four” is left and we’re only heading into the fifth round. For years now the F.A. Cup has been dominated by United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool and now with three of them removed the F.A. Cup might just turn into an interesting competition.

Arsenal got what they deserved for disrespecting the great competition and fielding a weakened side, trying to rest up for league games. But this Arsenal team haven’t won a trophy in quite a few years now and I think it pretty arrogant of them to be picking and choosing which pieces of silverware they want to go for. An F.A. Cup might have been a good building block for a team on the edge of winning stuff, but still a team looking to get back to winning ways.

I wrote a bit yesterday about the magic of the F.A. Cup and especially the third round when upsets occur and Giant killings are all the rage. Then along came the actual games and my hopes of seeing the beautiful magic of the cup were severely dented when almost all results went as planned, especially for the Premier League clubs. The closest we came to an upset was Reading holding Liverpool to a 1-1 draw and forcing a replay. But then came good old Leeds United, a team once upon a time that if they went out in the third round you’d have said they were the Giants being killed, but who now are only a Giant in name and in history. Little old Leeds from League One stepped up today and sleighed the might of Manchester United, putting an end to any hopes United held of winning the F.A. Cup or even the League and Cup double.

United fans will fool you into believing their focus is on the Champions League anyway (and it probably is) but their line-up today was of Premier League quality and they really should have been able to put away Leeds. It was great to see: Team Spirit, effort and commitment to the cause and the belief that the smaller team can indeed prevail over the big team in the F.A. Cup.

I seen quite a few Twitter messages from various football experts and journalists about how the magic of the F.A. Cup was dead, or indeed just a myth from many years gone past due to the results on the Saturday, but then came Sunday and then came Leeds and restored the glory of the early rounds of the cup and them same experts and journalists were full of praise for the famous old trophy. But let the Giant killings end there. I don’t need to see anymore – such as Reading putting Liverpool out in their replay at Anfield.

The F.A. Cup kicks off today. A January tradition, a special day on the Footballing calendar and a day when we scan the fixture list and look for what might be some big time Giant-killing shocks. Every year some lower league team beats a team from a league above and the press call it a Giant killing and it sets up a further pay day for the lower league team against another big opposition. The third round is the round when the big Premier League teams join the contest and everyone from the lower leagues prays for a draw against one of them that will be shown on the TV. Over the years there has been some huge shocks in this round of the competition and while some people believe you are seeing them less and less do not believe them that the romance of the third round is gone entirely.

Some potential shockers could come from Stoke v York or Sunderland v Barrow. Proper big league team v minnow type of games there and not many neutrals will be going for Stoke or Sunderland. Also look for something at Everton were they host Carlisle or at Fulham when Swindon come into town. Liverpool host Reading, not quite a small team but a team struggling somewhat in the league below the Premier League after being relegated down a few years ago. Liverpool will be expected to win but over the years Liverpool have shown they know how to hit a banana skin in style from time-to-time. But hopefully not because the F.A. Cup is a big shot at silverware for the Reds.

On TV here today is, unfortunately, Middlesbrough and Manchester City. I say unfortunately because Middlesbrough are not that small a team and on a day like this you really like to see one of the minnows taking on one of the big boys. City expected to win, now under new manager Manchini, but Middlebrough, recently relegated and also under a new manager from the last few months will look to prove they still can mix it with teams in the Premier League. But beating Middlesbrough does not necessarily mean good things ahead. Get this: The team that has beat Middlesbrough in each of the last five years has gone on to make the final, only to lose it.

Below is a look at all the third round games today: Read More»

One of my favorite weekends of the football season is the FA Cup third-round. The weekend were anything is possible and were fairy tales come true. Giant killings are potentially real and the big boys, the rich superstars of our game, have to go to the backwaters of British Football and play on broken up pitches in the middle of winter. It is a time for the ‘little teams’ to shine, get their moment in the sun that won’t literally be shining, and most importantly pick up a healthy pay packet from the TV cameras and the gate. The games don’t take place until the new year but this past weekend the draw took place and we got to see who was going to have to face who to get a shot at going further. For my team Liverpool it is a date with Reading in a tournament that has grown massively in importance for the Reds due to being out of the title race and out of the Champions League. The FA Cup might well represent a shot at some silverware.

There are some all Premier League clashes which will see some teams FA Cup dreams end early such as West Ham v Arsenal and Villa against Blackburn, but at least going out against a fellow Premier League team saves better face than say Sunderland losing at either Oxford Utd or Barrow depending which team gets through their second round game. That has a potential Giant killing written all over it. Or what about Everton v Carlisle – Everton have had an awful start to the season and will surely not stoop so low as to drop out of the cup at this stage after going to the final last year? Could they?

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