FA Cup - 2008

[rio1981]

I love the FA Cup - my team hasn't won it for what now is the best part of three decades but that still doesn't stop me believing, there's still something special about it for me.

But do others feel the same, and what about the players? I lost a bit of respect for Dave Kitson when I read this but is this more of where our current game - sadly - stands, than a player's own belief? Or does he just want his boyhood club to lift the cup instead of his current employers?!

"We are not going to win the FA Cup and I do not care less about it, to be honest," said the 27-year-old.

"I care about staying in the Premier League, as does everybody at this club. Our league status is not protected by winning the FA Cup - simple as that."

This might make "economic sense" but is this really what our game has become? I wonder what Kitson would think if Reading got to the final?

[sdb123]

Reminds me of when Manure pulled out of the FA Cup to concentrate on the World Club Championship.

[StevoAVFC]

I love the FA Cup and Carling Cup, ive hated it from my teams point of view for many years now though because we just keep getting drawn against Man Utd or Chelsea. But if we was to beat them in the cup oh how sweet it would be if we won.

Villa vs Man Utd (Reserves?) Saturday BBC1

I love how the top 4 dont take things seriously and then when they lose because of the reserves playing deep down the manager is kicking himself.

I agree about Dave Kitson, he should just go to spurs or retire with that attitude. He said after the spurs reading game then 6-4 loss one, he got his 2 goals so i did my part. Sounds like a great team player.

[thfccambs]

I agree about Dave Kitson, he should just go to spurs or retire with that attitude. He said after the spurs reading game then 6-4 loss one, he got his 2 goals so i did my part. Sounds like a great team player.

Think you need to listen again mate as that's not what he said at all.

I'd welcome him at WHL any day also.

Looking forward to Saturday, can't beat the FA cup.
Well at least some of us love it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ng/7168675.stm

Think the likes of these teams are more worried about premiership survival, and we do play far to many games over this period of the season.

[sdb123]

Originally Posted by StevoAVFC

I love how the top 4 dont take things seriously and then when they lose because of the reserves playing deep down the manager is kicking himself.

Lots of labels can be levelled against Chelsea however we always put out a decent side in the cup competitions.

[thfccambs]

Originally Posted by sdb123

Reminds me of when Manure pulled out of the FA Cup to concentrate on the World Club Championship.

...................and lost i do believe,

[overkill]

Originally Posted by rio1981

I love the FA Cup - my team hasn't won it for what now is the best part of three decades but that still doesn't stop me believing, there's still something special about it for me.

But do others feel the same, and what about the players? I lost a bit of respect for Dave Kitson when I read this but is this more of where our current game - sadly - stands, than a player's own belief? Or does he just want his boyhood club to lift the cup instead of his current employers?!

"We are not going to win the FA Cup and I do not care less about it, to be honest," said the 27-year-old.

"I care about staying in the Premier League, as does everybody at this club. Our league status is not protected by winning the FA Cup - simple as that."

This might make "economic sense" but is this really what our game has become? I wonder what Kitson would think if Reading got to the final?

Agree totally. He went right down in my estimation after those comments. But then so did Viv Anderson after his comments last night about how clubs 'have to look to move with the times' when asked about Everton leaving Liverpool for that dump Kirby. Why? Everton aren't going to compete with the big four even if they move to Mars, so why leave the city and into a war zone, against the wishes of the local residents, just to end up like Sunderland et al? Yeah, nice new stadia, but up **** creek for years as the costs spiral and the team is starved of funds.

Kitsons comments just echo what I was saying earlier on this season. That anyone outside the top four has such limited ambitions it's scary, and that the only thing that anyone cares about in football these days is dough. From top to bottom.

We are just kidding ourselves that the players have any love for the game at all anymore. Sod wearing football kits, they should all be kitted out in army fatigues with 'mercenary' painted across the front in big white letters.

And yes, they did care once.

[thfccambs]

Originally Posted by sdb123

Lots of labels can be levelled against Chelsea however we always put out a decent side in the cup competitions.

Yep agree there they do, does **** me of though when some teams play weakened sides. Especially if we then lose to them.

[rio1981]

It's getting such a tired cliche now but it really isn't a "game" to be enjoyed anymore, it's a business to be endured and this kind of thing doesn't help.

So Kitson thinks it's more romantic to languish in the middle of the league than to go on a cup run, maybe draw a big side at home and knock them out, and possibly make a final? Is it any wonder that the so-called "big four" (incidentally does this now include Manchester City after last night's results? Like it does...) have a monopoly on all competitions including cups where this kind of attitude is reflected by the players themselves?

What makes me mad is that you could take Kitson's comments and apply them to the Premier League; "well Dave, you're never going to win the league either, so why are you bothering playing this game at all?"...

If it's not my own beloved West Ham I truly do hope it's not one of the "big four" that win it, and for the same token it's a side that takes the competition seriously from the off.

[Trist]

I agree with you Rio.

Although I can barely remember it (only being 10 at the time) watching Palace beat Liverpool 4-3 in the 1990 FA Cup Semi-Final, then the 3-3 final against Man Utd will always be up there as probably my two favourite Palace games.

In fact thinking about it... playoff finals, and other FA Cup or League Cup scalps... all of my favourite games have pretty much been cup games.*

*Then again, it's not as if Palace going to be topping the Premiership anytime soon so cup game victories will probably always be the biggest we're ever to likely achieve.

I think for most fans the FA Cup will always hold something special purely because its their only real chance to get one over on the big boys. Over the course of a season the big guns are likely to alway come out top (more so with the money spread being the ways it is) but with cup games you've always got a chance on the day.

[overkill]

Originally Posted by rio1981

It's getting such a tired cliche now but it really isn't a "game" to be enjoyed anymore, it's a business to be endured and this kind of thing doesn't help.

So Kitson thinks it's more romantic to languish in the middle of the league than to go on a cup run, maybe draw a big side at home and knock them out, and possibly make a final? Is it any wonder that the so-called "big four" (incidentally does this now include Manchester City after last night's results? Like it does...) have a monopoly on all competitions including cups where this kind of attitude is reflected by the players themselves?

What makes me mad is that you could take Kitson's comments and apply them to the Premier League; "well Dave, you're never going to win the league either, so why are you bothering playing this game at all?"...

If it's not my own beloved West Ham I truly do hope it's not one of the "big four" that win it, and for the same token it's a side that takes the competition seriously from the off.

Spot on Rio. I support a big four side, and yet even I'm sick of them grabbing all the trophies. Which is due in no small part due to the depressingly singular mentality of the teams that once would have made, at the very least, their lives difficult in the process.

The game, as I've been saying for a long while, is just that - to be endured, not enjoyed. Yet we have Sir phallix moaning about the lack of atmosphere at games! What does he expect when all the modern fan has been led to expect from the game is their team winning?

Good football? Atmosphere? Pursuit of trophies outside the top four? What's that got to do with it anymore?!

They want their cake and to eat it.

[rio1981]

I think football is well on it's way to imploding, really.

Surely it won't be long before the kids - that's the ones who can't actually afford to get to games - cite the FA Cup as not being particularly important either, and that's the real killer.

Some of my favourite games of all time have been in the FA Cup - and two of them where I was present at the time were both defeats, once at home to 10-man Arsenal in a Quarter-Final Replay when we got done on penalties (late 90's), and the other on a Sunday afternoon being turned over 3-2 at home by Spurs (possibly late 90's, early 00's) - both unbelievable atmospheres and rarely replicated for league games.

So maybe those of us that are up for the cup should keep this thread alive, out of sheer principle alone! I'd love to see us do it if I were a betting man the money would be going on our opponents on Saturday, Man City

[city fan]

Originally Posted by rio1981

So maybe those of us that are up for the cup should keep this thread alive, out of sheer principle alone! I'd love to see us do it if I were a betting man the money would be going on our opponents on Saturday, Man City

Cheers Rio. It's a pity that we weren't kept apart. It would be so good for the game if one of the "big four" did not win it this season.

Our last genuine cup win was 1976, yes 31 years . I think genuine fans are always up for the cup, the atmosphere can be something special.

If we do get past you it will then depend on the draw, and if we can strengthen our squad a little. Heres hoping......

[overkill]

Originally Posted by rio1981

I think football is well on it's way to imploding, really.

Surely it won't be long before the kids - that's the ones who can't actually afford to get to games - cite the FA Cup as not being particularly important either, and that's the real killer.

Some of my favourite games of all time have been in the FA Cup - and two of them where I was present at the time were both defeats, once at home to 10-man Arsenal in a Quarter-Final Replay when we got done on penalties (late 90's), and the other on a Sunday afternoon being turned over 3-2 at home by Spurs (possibly late 90's, early 00's) - both unbelievable atmospheres and rarely replicated for league games.

So maybe those of us that are up for the cup should keep this thread alive, out of sheer principle alone! I'd love to see us do it if I were a betting man the money would be going on our opponents on Saturday, Man City

Same here. FA cup matches produced such pulsating matches (in the days when everyone dropped star players for league games before key FA cup ties not the other way around!) that they stuck in the mind. I can barely remember a handful of league games over the years, but the Q/F vs Southampton in 1979, the 3rd and 4th games of that epic five game battle against Wednesday in the same year, obviously the cup final in 79', the S/F against Spurs that we lost in 91', the 2nd, 3rd and 4th S/F games against Liverpool in 1980, the S/F v Utd in 99' the 5th rd game against them in 88', the final against Chelsea (two classic goals in a tough derby), and so many more. At the same time the LC has provided some classic games to. The epic game against Man City in 1978 is still down as one of the great encounters between the two sides in the 70's, and of course the S/F epics against Spurs at White Hart Lane in 87', the games on which modern Arsenal was really built (good football, but still with the grit of old Arsenal sides).

Ah, them's were the days!

[JohnG]

Who can forget the good old days of the FA Cup when my local team Mansfield Town beat West Ham 3-0 in 1969 In those days you had the "giant killers" and you can rest assured that the giants they beat put out a full side. West Ham had all of their stars out that night. I doubt we'll ever see those days again sadly.