Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Friday 19 October 2012

19 October 2012

Since your original/regular Diary became a fan in 1979, the Mariners seem to have turned out a stunning cup result roughly every three or four seasons, on average. More recently there were Spurs, Wigan, Derby and Liverpool. Before that there were Norwich, West Ham, Coventry, Leicester and Aston Villa. There was, of course, Everton, twice.

But the pattern here is that nearly all of these 'giant-killings' - I hesitate to apply the term 'giant' to Wigan Athletic - came not in the most famous cup competition of all but its poorer relation. Town boast a proud record in the League Cup, but in the FA Cup - one or two famous exceptions aside - the club seems to achieved almost knack all since those two epic semi-finals back in the 1930s.

The winners of tomorrow's qualifying round at home to Kidderminster Harriers will enter a first round proper featuring Bradford City, Bury, Coventry City, Notts County, Portsmouth, Preston North End, Sheffield United and Wimbledon. Between them these eight clubs have won the cup 14 times. I don't particularly know where I'm going with this, but it sounds good, doesn't it?

Town have failed to reach the third round of the cup since 2003 - and even then we qualified for it automatically by virtue of being in the top two divisions. But as the excellent Kidderminster site Harriers Online points out, tomorrow's opponents bring with them their own woeful recent record in the competition. The Worcestershire side have failed to win a single FA Cup tie since November 2008. And that was against Curzon Ashton.

Team news? Ross Hannah's not allowed to play: Bradford don't want him cup-tied. Shaun Pearson's still injured and it sounds quite nasty. Ian Miller will continue in Pearson's place at the back. We'd expect Andy Cook to get another go up front alongside local celebrity Anthony Elding, though young Dayle Southwell will be straining at the leash.

"We're not going to win it, that's for sure!" chuckles one of the managers in the Telewag today. He means the tournament, not the tie. He'll be right about that. Mind you, back in the autumn of 1987 I bet there were a few Wimbledon fans who thought the same thing.