The Adam Hepton Column

Wednesday 11 December, 2002

Sign of the times

FA Cup Third Round day has always been one of excitement for me. Growing up, it was often a completely unbiased moment as it was more often than not that draw day was missing one Bradford City FC. As the years rolled by, it became more and more exciting as City actually made it through.

I would always ask for the same - a smaller club than us at home that we could realistically expect to beat so we could easily progress through as far as possible. Or Leeds. I would have said "or Huddersfield", but they fall into the first category anyway.

I think I've only ever seen City face off against non-league opposition once and that was Burton Albion. This may, however, be wrong. I only remember that for Gary Robson scoring with his arse. No, usually we would end up with either someone at the bottom of the division below away who would beat us or, occasionally, a top division club. Now this was always a problem. I've never been of the school where it's good to play teams better than yourselves - this invariably means you get beaten and get knocked out of the cup. Although there are the obvious times when this infallible formula fails and we unbelievably spawn a victory over superior opposition, only to fall at the next hurdle to a far worse side than the one we've just beaten (which is usually Bolton).

The University years were a different tack altogether. Being in the South, where League games were either not often or an expensive day, I must have been the only City fan wishing for an away tie at Luton, Watford or Stevenage. But there I was.

This year was a sad indictment of what has gone on at VP in that my preferences changed totally. I wasn't wishing for one of the non-league sides at home. I wasn't wishing for an away tie at Cardiff or Swansea (since I'm stuck in the arse end of Wales, so far removed from anything it's quicker by train to VP than it would have been to Wrexham). I didn't even want Leeds. I wanted a big club, and I didn't care if it was home or away. In fact, because the FA state that each club get 50% of the gate receipts, I was kind of hoping for Newcastle or Man United away. So West Brom away was what we ended up with, and whereas it may not have the fun of crushing a piddly side (or narrowly beating them in Burton's case) or the joys of a local derby, or even a game I can possibly get to, it IS a money spinner of sorts in front of 20,000 paying customers for our debt-riddled side and that can only be perceived as a Good Thing.

Should the unthinkable (also known as an "Everton Away") actually happen and we make it into the fourth round draw, I'm sure that I won't be the only claret-and-amber bedecked one who is quite content with a tie against any team that brings in more home fans than we do in their back yard.

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