Sail past The Saints

Southampton 0-3 United
FA Cup 3rd Round; attendance 31,901
Left work early to get home for this match, wouldn't miss a FA Cup tie with United and a chance to lie on the sofa with a cup of tea whilst Setanta Sports dished up the pictures. After an unsettled ten minutes with a changed team it starting looking promising. Well it was. When Southamption went down to 10 men I thought game ruined now - they'll run out of steam chasing about. Good to see Danny Welbeck back in action for the first goal. Nani takes the penalty, a harsh call by the ref for handball. Noticed he's picked up that Ronaldo trick of stopping in the run up before firing. Rooney coming on lifted the game after a second half spell of sitting back. Made the third goal for Darron Gibson who before then was booting the ball high and wide.

I'm looking forward to the next tie against Spurs. Promises to be a cracker, they play attractive football and have enough players on the bench to create mischief. Bring it on. The FA Cup is still magic, except for the final that's usually bobbins.

FA Cup Prelim Round at Trafford

Trafford 2-4 Stocksbridge Park Steels
FA Cup Preliminary Round, attendance 147

FA Cup Prelim Round Action from biffadigital on Vimeo.
So it was off to Shawe View in Flixton to see if Trafford FC can progress in the FA Cup. A goal up after 18 minutes and it looked promising. This meant I didn't win "the time of the first goal competition" as I had 37 minutes. For those who have never done grassroots football - you pay a quid and get a piece of paper with a number from 1 thru 90 and either an A (away team) or H (home team) printed on it. That's 179-1 odds no wonder I've never won.

Stocksbridge had brought along about 20 supporters and they soon had something to cheer about. When 3-1 up the looked like having a comfortable win. But a Trafford come back got it back to 3-2. But a breakway goal from Stocksbridge put an end to it. Even managed to get two goals on video.

Game 39: Admission £6, first goal ticket £1, tea 50p. No transport costs as got a lift from the man next door. No programme bought.

FA Cup Starts This Weekend...

Forget the ney sayers who moan that the FA Cup isn't what it used to be - it's the 128th season in an era of endless games on the telly so it'll never be the same. But it's still a big competition - 762 clubs entered this year, and it still has magic matches to watch. You still want your team to win its tie - United bundled out by Portsmouth 1-0 with Rio Ferdinand in goal, FC United lost at Fleetwood 2-1 in front of 3,112.....oh one of the teams for 2008-09 South Normanton Athletic has dropped out already....

This year ITV and Setanta have the Tv rights. I've been critical of ITV coverage in the past but it looks like they've pulled their socks up. Usually the very earlier rounds get ignored but this season there is a live game and highlights from the start. The Extra Preliminary Round this Saturday is on the internet. Wantage Town v Brading Town live on Friday night 15th August from 1820h BST (1720h UTC) on the ITV Local website.

There will be highlights of teams like Leek County School Old Boys - I remember FC United had their first competitive fixture at their ground 3 years ago. Anyone for Racing Club Warwick, Cadbury Athletic, Jarrow Roofing or Shepton Mallet. I think I just like the names.

FC United don't enter until the First Qualifying Round with an away trip to Nantwich Town on Saturday 13th September. It'll be interesting if they want to move the kick-off from 1500h to suit the Tv schedule - don't think there would be a fans boycott this time.

Links - http://www.itvlocal.com/facup/.

Bundled out of the FA Cup

United 0-1 Portsmouth attendance 75,465
I never thought we'd be going home mid-afternoon in the drizzle having been knocked out of the FA Cup. One minute it's comedy capers as the ball refuses to go in the Portsmouth net. Still have the mental image of staring down at Carrick desperately trying to get a toe to it in those few inches over the line. Next minute the action is at the order end. Your substitute goalkeeper gets a red card, Rio Ferdinand is now wearing a blue goalkeeping shirt, and they just scored a penalty. After that United lost their shape and Portsmouth did time wasting. Pretty miffed that the 2008 cup adventure ended on a damp note.

Got home and checked events in Yorkshire. Not Barnsley beating Chelsea, that came later, but FC United winning at Goole 1-3. That put's them in the Unibond President's Cup Final which is no consolation if they don't win promotion.

The Cup still has magic

FA Cup Magical Crowds from biffadigital on Vimeo.
It's a Monday and you're still in the FA Cup. So along with thousands in Bristol and Barnsley I'm waiting until 1325h to find out who has whom in the draw. Running round at work to find a PC but settle on an old radio in the kitchen. Perfect. It's Portsmouth at home - another £33, but what the heck. I don't know how many more years I'll be going to Old Trafford - so many people I know have quit for various reasons - age, commitments, expense. So just look forward to it. This year I have a personal target of watching 40 games. After spending 45 minutes having a hair cut last week, a dull first half is total nirvana. Got to make 20 games before the summer break so a Cup run is welcome. I'm not going ground hopping it's United and FC United as first choice. Bring it on. The FA Cup is still has magic as you can witness in the short video. Bit of crowd trouble with two blokes getting thrown out - not a clue what that was about. Pity the Final is the disappointing over-hyped bit at the end.

Four Past Arsenal - Brilliant !!!

United 4 Arsenal 0 FA Cup 5th Round att: 75,515
Turned up thinking this could go either way, depending on who is playing and who is up for the clash. But you don't go to football knowing the outcome you want that unscripted drama. Well you've read the reports and this was a superb performance. Evra is such a good player - he repeatedly runs the whole length of the pitch to attack and defend. Darren Fletcher had a great game, not just 'cos he got two goals, but because he was making moves by being in the right place. Rooney - well we won't win anything without him. Arsenal can take comfort in that they won't play this badly again, and Lehmann can take credit to keeping the score down to four.

Other trivia highlights : Spotting Sylvestre getting out of his 4x4 in the car park behind the Stretford End - forgotten all about him. A ridiculous uncomplimentary song about Adebayor with a reference to elephnats, and not so sure the ditty about Ji Sun Park eating your labrador is appropriate either.

Forward to the last 16

United 3-1 Tottenham Hotspur
FA Cup 4th Round att : 75,369
The scoreline suggests it looked easy but it a was tense affair for a lot of us. Fortunately Spurs missed a couple, Van der Saar saved a sprawling shot on the ground and there was a Malbranque header that hit the post. Don't know if it was mentioned on tv but when Ronaldo lined up to take the penalty those very annoying and distracting electronic advert boards were put on freeze. No repeat of the miss at West Ham. That should be mandatory for all penalties. Not so sure about watering the pitch at half time - appeared to be a bit of slipping around in the second half. Other item of note - the return of Paul Scholes after a long layoff. Greeting with enthusiatic singing and applause. The late third goal by Ronaldo sealed the game - one of those low ground shots were the keeper didn't get to ground early enough. Took me an hour to wind down after all this.

United Beat Villa (Again)

Aston Villa 0-2 United on BBC1 FA Cup 3rd Round

Round at next door's chomping thru 'Bombay Mix' and sipping Peroni all thru the first half. One of those games were both sides try and grind each other out looking for the first goal. Not quite what we were hoping for. It's a delightful home made Thai curry for half time. Plates on knees catching up on earlier FA Cup goals and some exits from the top division. Half way through the second half we thinking it'll be shelling out £66 (2 tickets) for the replay. Either that, or Villa will sneak one and close up shop. But Vidic is a class act and the defence is superb. The rest you'll know about. First goal is when Giggs actually nutmegs a defender and Ronaldo gets to it first to bundle it in. The second is the substitute called Rooney at his best. Finish off the 'Frizzante' and the chocolates.

3rd Round Day

The first Saturday after the New Year marks a particular point in the season. It's 3rd Round of the FA Cup when the big clubs come in, the minnows are hoping for a pay day and the commentators would like an upset to write about.

Hopefully United will get the result I want at Villa Park. If Wayne Rooney is back on the pitch we might just nick it. My useless prediction is 1-2 for United. Lawro has it down for a 2-2 draw. That's not a result I care for....hands up who wants an extra game in a long, hard season. As it's a 1715h kick off I'll have to find some distractions in the daylight hours.

FC United are away in a 5 a-side competiton in Reisa, Germany. It's called Hallenfussball, and there is a rumour it's live on the internet from 1200h. Can't find any streaming links to it on the DSF TV web page. Having a German vocab of 30 words doesn't help.

Villa Again and again

Watched the thrilling and very muddy FA Cup tie on BBC1 - Harrogate Railway Athletic coming from 1-3 down to make a game of it. I kept wiping the tv screen but it was the cameras splashed with lashing rain. Mansfield won 2-3....

Then comes to draw for the January, third round tie. The number to listen out for was 24. Yet again it's Aston Villa. That's the 4th time in 7 seasons. On a positive note its an away tie - so save £33, and it surely must be on tv. The positive will be that a full strength side will play. Not one of those tinkered make-shift set up that gets you a draw with Burton Albion, or Exeter City and a not needed replay. This time last year United beat them at home with goals by Larsson and Ole in injury time, neither who play for us anymore.
Romance of Cup by Biffafootie January 2007.

Winter Weekend : Fulham Monday

Going to have to wait until Monday before United play again. Two easy fixtures at home coming up. Fulham on Monday night with a promised return of Wayne Rooney, followed by Derby County on the Saturday...can't afford another Bolton blip.

The question is what do on Saturday. I can't face the shops or the Manchester Xmas market on a weekend off. So it could very possibly be a tram trip to Radcliffe where FC United take on Rossendale United. Depends on any hangover, weather and the laziness gene. FC United have lost their last three games so a reverse of fortunes is much needed.

Sunday is going to be an armchair afternoon. Harrogate Railway Athletic are on taking on Mansfield Town in the FA Cup - BBC1 k.o. 1310h. The game is a sell out. For some strange reason I've been following the progress of the smaller Harrogate team. Obviously I want them to win and come to Old Trafford in January for the 3rd round. Bet they'd like that too.

If you're not up for the Cup there is the PFA Centenary match England XI v. Rest of World XI at the Council House (actually it's a very good stadium with balti pies available, not that any City fans read this weblog) - it's on Sky Sport 1, k.o. 1300h. Also available is Fiorentina v Inter Milan - Channel 5 k.o. 1400h and eleven other televised games. So cup of tea, slice of parkin, central heating, Sunday papers and a packet of crisps at halftime. Does it get any better than this?

So

Head to head in Harrogate

Can anyone explain why I've taken an interest in the goings on in Harrogate? Only been there once and that was in the last century. Following a previous post Double Header in Harrogate when both Harrogate Town and Harrogate Railway Athletic had FA Cup fixtures on the same Saturday, both clubs now face each other in the 4th Qualifying round. Story.

Previous Round - 3rd Qualifying
Harrogate Railway Athletic 3-2 Matlock Town att. 254
Harrogate Town 2-0 Clitheroe att. 516
That's 770 people who didn't watch England v. Estonia on the same afternoon.

Double Cup Header in Harrogate

The delightful spa town, and the only postcode in mainland UK not to have the evil Tesco empire robbing the local economy (though they are trying to open yet another boring supermarket for sad sheep on the north of the town) has two FA Cup 3rd Qualifying round games on the same day. Can the place handle it?

Harrogate Town v Clitheroe; kick off 1300h
Harrogate Railway Athletic v Matlock Town; kick off 1330h

Town are in the Blue Square Premier (average gate 513) , and Railway are Unibond Division 1 North (average gate 103). Probably a lot more people in Harrogate will be watching the England game against Estonia that afternoon.

Well not for me, I'm off to see FC United v. Wakefield at Gigg Lane and hopefully a much needed 3 points to get the promotion prospects realised.

FC United Video

FA Cup FC United first ever match
Took a while to encode this. Great day out Chorlton Five go to Altrincham on the tram. Only caught the penalty on the video but got the atmosphere. Trafford 2-5 FC United

FA Cup Tram Trip

Went off to Altrincham on a damp Sunday afternoon. It's FC United with their first ever FA Cup match and it's against the rivals Trafford FC. Two up in about 15 minutes, turns to 2-2. A penalty award for handball puts FC United ahead before half time. The final score is a 5-2 win though the play was a lot closer than the score records. Back home to Stretford on the tram, a good day out for the five of us. FC United now have to travel to Fleetwood Town away on September 15th. Attendance 2238.

Flixton whom we watched in the earlier round won 1-0 yesterday. A 90th minute goal over Salford City.

Road to Wembley

So going to watch United v. Sunderland on Saturday, and then the FA Cup on Sunday absolutely marvelous. The road to Wembley, and I've actually been at an early round game when a dozen fans were singing that. Come to think of it was at Trafford FC in August 1999 and MUTV cameras were at the game - the year Manchester United were pressured to go to Brazil for a FIFA World Club tv tournament. Well FC United are up for the cup - you can download cut out FA Cups for the event. Link.

Flixton v. Bootle

FA Cup Early Round.
That time of year again and off to see a very early FA Cup round. It doesn't get earlier than the Extra Preliminary Round. Our first ever visit to Valley Road, made a wrong turn and had to ask for directions. However this was young Archie's first ever match. He lives next door even at 8 months old he was impressed by the shouting and the flag waving linesman in front of the stand. It was a close game, managed to see all the goals but not capture them with the camera.
Flixton 2-1 Bootle
HT 1-0 Attendance 49
Now meet Salford City at home September 1st.

FA Cup Final

A dull first half, a disappointing result loosing to one Drogba goal in extra time. Ah well, another season over. A rest for two months...watch some cricket, gardening, allotment, film making, holiday in the sun. As you can see I lost my only bit of gambling all season, a pathetic 5 pound treble fell at the first hurdle. Don't know whether to carry on blogging footie...well not for a while anyway...Back in August.

FA Cup Semi-Final

Watching this in my hotel room in London. A small telly at the end of the bed. The last time I was in these circumstances was the 1999 FA Cup final in the Metropole Hotel, Brighton. A comfortable game. A good half time break nipping out to Spar across the road for crisps and confectionery. Noticed a few empty seats, even though I know people who couldn't get a ticket for the game. Do the F.A. know how to sell a game? Also the last semi at lucky Villa Park for a long time to come. The F.A. are desperate to re-coup on the new Wembley, read all future games. Maybe it's a good stadium but a shame about its location. Football - the national game exploited by people who have a world view that fits on a map of the Underground. United 3-1 Watford.

FA Cup on a Monday

The only goal of the game is a penalty, and it clearly was a penalty. Filmed here from the Stretford End. Packed Middlesboro defence proved very frustrating for United. It was a frustrating game but a 1-0 win was a good win. Dreading any extra time, even worse a penalty shoot-out. Wouldn't have got home until very late. It was a rush to get here and about 3 degrees when we did. Crowd down to around 64,000 but not bad for a Monday night...

FA Cup Replay

BBC1, 2005 ko, waiting for Eastenders to finish. Not happy with the team selection, what do i know, a brilliant start, goals at 2, 4, and 6 minutes. It's going to be a 5 or 7 goal victory. What happened? Second half was a shambles, could have lost this one, hanging on at 2-3, three minutes stoppage time. Reading 2 United 3. Noticed the pitch looked worn out and had faded rugby markings...Bring on Middlesboro..

FA Cup 5th Round

United v. Reading at 1715h...after beating them a couple of weeks ago this game was a big disappointment, a 1-1 draw disappointment. Poor game, squandered chances and bad passing.
Note the empty section of Old Trafford in the East Stand - you don't see that very often.

Romance of the Cup #2

United v. Portsmouth 1715h kick off. Crowd is down to 71,000, a lot of tourists and kids. After a goal less first half, the crowd chanted for Wayne Rooney and eventually he ran on to change the game.

Find this video and thousands of others at vSocial!
Wayne Rooney's Second Goal, well I thought it was going over the bar and obviously David James in the Portsmouth was thinking the same. Link to YouTube video

Romance of the Cup

So the romance of the FA Cup is dead, well not today, not in front of 74,000 spectators. It was a tourist game, the cameras snapping all around us, the leaping to feet at inappropriate moments watching the corner kicks with eyes on a small screen. But it didn't distract from Henrik Larsson's debut goal, nor from Ole's injury time winner. Fantastic, the romance lives, especially when you win.

TV broadcasters are actively encouraging people to video their FA Cup day - no playing action for copyright reason. BBC Story