Hartlepool United - Tuesday 28th October 2008

By the time you read this, and that's presuming that any of you are reading this, we will know who our opponents will be in the first round of the FA Cup this year after the televised draw last Sunday, and we will only be ten or eleven days away from playing them. I'm sure that we all agree too that it is high time we had a good run in the FA Cup, although given the way things have gone in recent seasons just getting into the second round would be an achievement.

Only once in the last eleven seasons have we made it through to the third round of the FA Cup. We saw then how much it can be worth as well as we picked out that plum tie at home to Arsenal that allowed Patrick Vieira and Richard Prokas to become friends for life. A bumper crowd of 15,300 packing out Brunton Park on January 7^th 2001 as Sylvain Wiltord's 22^nd minute goal sent the Gunners through after a battling performance from the Blues.

Some of the names sadly come flooding back from Carlisle's team that day too, the United line-up and used substitutes in those dark times late in the Knighton era, being Glennon, Birch, Hemmings (Thwaites), Whitehead, Winstanley, Darby (Heggs), Soley, Prokas, Dobie, Stevens (Halliday) and Connelly. The Arsenal side meanwhile reveals Ashley Cole as the only Gunner still playing professional football in this country.

Prior to that and we have to go back to the 1996-97 season that saw us lose 2-0 at home to Sheffield Wednesday in the fourth round, the game that day getting a good slot on Match of the Day in the evening. Although that FA Cup run might be more fondly remembered by some Blues fans for the third round Tuesday night 1-0 win at home to Tranmere that saw many of us roar with laughter at the sight of John Aldridge throwing a hissy fit and getting sent off.

You have to feel that those two good runs coincided with the rare occurrence for United of drawing a non-league club at home in the first round, 1996 and 2000 seeing Shepshed Dynamo and Woking as the respective 6-0 and 5-1 victims. Although those fancying a trip out to a non-league club in the opening stage of the competition will no doubt remember the Ilkeston Town game on the road in October 1999 saw that saw Carlisle lose 2-1 after going 1-0 up thanks to Australian striker Paul Harries.

The older readers among you though will remember the good old days when we didn't have to worry about reaching the third round because we were already there. Those being the First and Second division seasons from 1965-66 to 1976-77 and then 1982-83 to 1985-86. The first of those eras seeing our most successful ever FA Cup campaign, in the one and only First division season of 1974-75, when we disappointingly lost 1-0 at home to a second division Fulham outfit in the quarter-finals.

I have no idea what the prize money was for reaching the last eight in the 1970s. But when you see that this season you get £400,000 (up from £300,000 last year) for making the quarter-finals then you can understand why it is important that we start to make some headway again in the competition. Infact make it as far as the third round and you can already put £75,000 in the bank, as long as you make sure that it isn't in Reykjavik, the winners though really wondering which bank it is safe enough to stick their £2 million in.

The television fees available can be eye popping as well, especially for non-league sides, a first round live game netting you £75,000 a replay £37,500 or highlights only £7,500. Those sums then rising by the third round stage to £160,000 and £80,000, although highlights remain at £7,500 throughout the competition. Even the radio gets in on the act where BBC coverage, at the same fund every round, nets you £9,000 for a full match and £4,500 for just 45 minutes.

As I write this there are still quite a few non-league teams below Blue Square North level from England left in the fourth qualifying round. Those northern clubs being Blyth Spartans, Curzon Ashton, Durham City, Sheffield FC, Nantwich and Newcastle Blue Star, so lets hope that one of those sides has made it through to the first round and been drawn away to us by the time you read this. That's the theory, but sadly you know you fine well that we'll end up away to Colchester.