If any of you have ever watched “Survivor” you will know that near the end, once the competition has been reduced to the finalists, they reminisce over the other contestants have been backstabbed and lied out of the game.
The FA Cup this season may be low on the backstabbing and lying quotient – better left to the Premiership – but a lot of teams have fallen by the way since the Extra Preliminary Round was held last August.
A little under 700 clubs entered the competition and now it is down to the top two teams in England to battle it out for the FA Cup. But rather than focusing on Chelsea and Manchester United, now is the chance to look back at some of the teams that took part in the competition.
The majority of the extra preliminary round games got underway on August 18 of last year. I randomly chose the game between Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association and Billingham Synthonia and to follow the winner until they were knocked out and then continue with their conqueror.
Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association made it through to the First Qualifying Round beating Billingham Synthonia 5-2 and Thackley F.C. 5-4. According to the FA Cup website the first round win by Jarrow was the upset of the round.
Both Jarrow and Billingham Synthonia played in the Arngrove Northern League Division 1 and although Jarrow won the FA Cup game, Synthonia finished well above them in the league. The teams finished 7th and 15th respectively out of 21 teams. Thackley F.C. finished third from bottom of the Northern Counties East Football League Premier Division and only avoided relegation by one point.
Fleetwood Town dispatched Jarrow 3-0 and made it through the next three rounds beating Goole AFC 4-2, Warrington Town 2-0 and Wisbech Town by the same score. Fleetwood finished 8th in the Unibond League while Goole AFC were 7th in the league below. Playing in the same division as Goole AFC, Warrington Town were fifteen spots lower at 22nd.
Wisbech Town of the Ridgeons Premier League (Eastern Counties) settled in a mid-table position. Salisbury City of the Nationwide Conference South took care of Fleetwood Town in the First Round 3-0 and earned a second round tie against former European Cup holders Nottingham Forest. After a 1-1 tie, Forest won the replay 2-0.
However, it has turned out to be another successful season for Salisbury under the management of former Southampton FA Cup winner Nick Holmes. They gained their second straight promotion. Last season they moved up from the Southern League Premier Division and next season they will be in the Conference National after winning the play-off final.
Forest went on to pull off one of the shocks of the third round when they comfortably beat Charlton Athletic 2-0. It was traumatic season for Charlton that finished with relegation to the Championship.
Forest then drew Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and from that point on it was all Chelsea. They beat Forest 3-0, Norwich City 4-0, Tottenham 2-1 in a replay after a fantastic 3-3 draw, and finally saw Blackburn Rovers off 2-1 in extra time in the semi final.
Forest are currently embroiled in the League One play offs – they beat Yeovil 2-0 in the first leg of the semi and the second leg is May 18. Norwich City could do no better than 16th in the Championship while Tottenham had to again settle for 5th in the Premiership. Blackburn saw their form slip late in the season and eventually finished 10th.
So there you are five degrees of separation between the multi millionaires of Chelsea and Billingham Synthonia who lost the extra preliminary round game nine months ago in front of a crowd of 67 paying spectators. On Saturday we will find out if the FA Cup conforms to 6 degrees of separation when the Cup Final is played out in front of 90,000 spectators and a TV audience in the tens of millions.
What was the best game you saw this season in the FA Cup and what individual performance stands out in your mind?
The best game of this year`s FA Cup.........Is still to come!
And in keeping with my record of not predicting a single game right this season (I hope) ,I am picking Man U to win.
It's going to be lots of fun for us 8 EPL fans crowded round the TV on Saturday morning, scoffing down an inter-city sizzler.
However, the pre-game doesn't look too exciting on DirecTV - we'll be soaking up the atmosphere of the test card up till 6.59.59 am. What's up with that?
Does anyone have any ideas of who to call to see if they'd start the transmission earlier? Maybe they plan to, or more likely will show it on 6-7 minute delay as Fox do quite often.
Bobby, can't you phone the Queen or something? She might take your call as it's from Canada. She'll sort the buggers out.
I guess I'll replay the preview show. No-one will notice at that time of the morning.
Does anyone know of an Internet feed of live programming that actually works from the US and doesn't block you out?
Also, I guess no-one in TV land remembers that the world cup was transmitted in HD. They have the technology and plenty of unused "upcoming pregame" HD channels. What's up with that?
Although my predicted amazing recoveries by the sickly (Obi, Robben etc,.) are coming along, our ponderous captain has now gone down with greedygeezer-contractitus accord to the Daily Getsworse.
Last edited by LosAngelesChelseaFan on May 18th at 12:52 AM.
Gee, best game I saw was Royals' near-comeback v. Man.Utd. in their 5th-round replay @ Reading -- the game where Red Devils netted three times in the first 6 minutes. ... Benny McCarthy's late game winner v. Arsenal in their 5th-round replay was a beauty ... the Bolton-Arsenal 4th-round replay saw Trotters equalise (1-1) in second-half stoppage time only to lose 1-3 in extra time. That was entertaining. ... Little Bristol City taking 'Boro to a 4th-round replay that ended in PK's (City lost, 5-4, alas) ... Norwich City fell in Round 3 -- but not before Darren Huckerby had turned back the clock with 5 FAC goals ... Matt Derbyshire was outstanding in Rovers' not-so-surprising Cup run. It took an extra-time strike from Michael Ballack (and where was he the rest of the season?) to deny Sparky's Gang a UEFA Cup berth. ... I'm hoping the best game, though, is tomorrow's -- and a pox on those loansharks @ Setanta, who have priced a poor man like me out of seeing the game live. Oh, well, thank Goodness for FSW and Wednesday's replay.
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I agree with you about the thieving robber barons at Setanta ,you already have to subscribe to their channel and then they charge you again ,I think they might be in collusion with the FA!
Normally I refuse to pay for FA Cup games or England internationals ,but as it`s Chelsea ,I have no choice but to pay them through gritted teeth.
If you or anyone else is in the East Texas area ,you are welcome to watch the game here!
Or in Los Angeles ,I hear there`s a big party at LACF`s house!
Thanks, Ringo, but East Texas is a little too far afield given the cost of gas. [Imagine, though, a bunch of LA Chelsea Fans -- in a little apartment in West LA, I'm guessing somewhere near the intersection of the 405 and the 10 -- at 7 o'clock in the morning, after a typical Friday night in those joints Motley Crue used to play, sitting there having Ryan Giggs break their hearts for breakfast. That's almost enough to keep me going. Maybe I'll give in and "watch" the game on Soccernet's GameCast, and watch the replay on FSW, too.] Win or lose, though, good luck, Ringo, to you and Jose.
Hey Ringo. Thanks for the link. Just what I need more Football. I thought the who Ian Wright Podcast idiotics, though.
I'm not sure who has the final tomorrow. I'm 90% sure it's Fox since they are covering in Canada. I think they're the ones putting it on PPV, not Setanta.
in the 2005- 6 season I paid around $240 on DirectTV for Fox's Premier League Premium games ... I thought that was good value at only $3 a game. this year Setanta at $14 a month which includes SPL, championship Chelsea TV , rugby etc, is good value. + DirecTV sports pack Fox and the other channels and the direct TV is even better value I think. Yes, I begrudge the PPV fees on top, but otherwise it would only up the regular subscriptions, I expect. Overall, given the niche size of the audiences, I think we have it have unbelievable coverage - probably the best in the world.... Compare with NFL sunday Ticket. You could be paying $17 for a hamburger meal inside Wembley stadium!!!
It was about 25-30 mins before you where on ,I gave a shout out to Bobby and the guys and gal on the blog...seemed like a good idea at the time!
Actually Cohen is quite sensible when he is on his own.I enjoyed talking to him!
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
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