Cod Almighty | Diary

Evolution will not be televised

12 December 2013

Huddersfield in the third round of the FA Cup. Do you think it's a bad draw? If you do, then presumably you won't be surprised, disappointed, or cross that it won't be shown live on ITV? Because why would the TV people bother screening a cup match if it's such a rubbish draw?

Maybe your original/regular Diary is just too contented with life, but I'm happy with the draw and I'm not bothered how much of it is on the telly. I'm just looking forward to attending the game. And I'm surprised to see so many of my fellow Town fans describing it as a rubbish (or worse) draw.

There were 64 balls in the bag for the third round draw. Of those, 20 represented Premier League teams. So we had less than a one-in-three chance of drawing a Premier League team. If you don't draw a Premier League team, you hope for a home draw. We got that. And although Huddersfield haven't played top-flight football since 1972, no-one with any meaningful knowledge of football in England will need reminding that they are three times league champions. They're three times runners-up too. They have reached the final of this tournament on no fewer than five occasions. Outside the Premier League, after Forest and Leeds, Huddersfield are pretty much as big as they come.

Grimsby Town fans, meanwhile, numbered fewer than 2,500 at our last league game – on the back of a ten-match unbeaten run, riding high in the league, and progressing nicely in two cup competitions. And you're calling Huddersfield a bad draw? Oh, now that is rich.

All in all, this is the sort of attention-deficit disorder response I'd expect from hyperactive children and Sky Sports consumers, who don't really appreciate the bigger picture and lack any feeling for the richly nuanced nature of the FA Cup and English football. Or from non-chairman John Shelton Fenty, who spoke movingly last week about his dream of getting knocked out in the third round.

Perhaps all that silly talk of Manchester United distorted the expectations of the more naive element among our support. But perhaps – given the "we should be beating teams like Welling" crap that another diarist flushed away on Tuesday – we still haven't adjusted our attitude since ten years ago, and we think we're still this mighty, mid-table second-division club.

You know – like, say, Huddersfield Town?