Cod Almighty | Article
by Paul Thundercliffe
8 November 2019
We might not win the cup one day. But it still gives us great games and memorable goals
This Saturday’s FA Cup tie will be Town’s 280th in the competition. Pisces sang 40-odd years ago that we were "gonna win the cup one day" but despite three fifth round ties between 1989 and 1996, the odds of this happening are shrinking by the day.
Town’s exploits last season saw them win their 100th and 101st games before succumbing gamely to Palace, with Harry Clifton scoring the 410th goal. It's a romantic cup competition that has thrown up some great games and memorable goals along the way.
My first ever tie was Reading at home, the game after North v Middlesbrough. I'd never known the Ponny so packed, so expectant, so deflated when Steve Saunders was pushed into an own goal. Then the surge of fans as Town battered their Royal opponents, and North again scoring from the acutest of angles to serve up a replay.
In those days, you played the following week, so on the Wednesday Town travelled to Berkshire in hope and trepidation. I listened secretly to the radio with my brother and we stifled our screams as Kevin Jobling waltzed through, rounded the keeper and slotted home, before celebrating in front of an enormous inflatable fried egg.
The holders Wimbledon were next in a game overshadowed by the inflatable craze encapsulated in a rainbow trout. It was a memorable cup run but an important one too: it ignited Town under Buckley and we had two successive promotions off the back of it.
Cockers against Donny was a cracking cup goal. Gary Jones curling with the outside of his foot against Carlisle another pearler. And I enjoyed Embleton’s first round fizzer last year. But my favourite FA Cup goal came in our mauling at Sheff Wednesday in 1997. 5-0 down at the time, Clive Mendonca thredded a crossfield pass onto the boot of little Johnny Oster, who bewitched and bedazzled before chipping into the top corner. Cue pandemonium, despite the scoreline.
There followed a tumultuous game that ebbed and flowed right up to Aswad Thomas shinning in a last-minute own goal. It was cold, it was damp, it was brilliant. You could smell the mud, the sweat and ultimately the tears
There have been many memorable cup matches across the years: Scunny away; the humdinger against Villa in 1994. The best game for me though was a defeat. 2-3 against Huddersfield when we were non-league.
They battered us for 20 minutes before Hannah slid home. There then followed a tumultuous game that ebbed and flowed right up to Aswad Thomas shinning in a last-minute own goal. It was cold, it was damp, it was brilliant. You could smell the mud, the sweat and ultimately the tears after Disley rose to nod home. Thomas could – and probably should – have won it from close range before that dramatic denouement. Cracking stuff.
Whether Town will make it to game 281 this season remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt a decent cup run is not only good for business. It is terribly good for the soul.