30 November 2009

DIAMONDS AREN'T FOREVER


It's tough to stay excited about the FA Cup, and I think it's sad how the whole things has dwindled in poularity in the last decade. The more the competition hemorrhages kudos, the more our own heritage suffers. The kids don't understand what it was like when the FA Cup final was the biggest day in the domestic calender, so our achivevements in 1983 lack importance in their eyes.

Draws at home against Rusheden and Diamonds doesn't help - if it was away it would've been a different matter, but actually playing more home games at Withdean is just punishment.

And it doesn't get better, the club dryly aknowledging the irony of a potential away draw against Stockport County coinciding with the same day our league fixture at Edgeley park was pencilled in, is a head-in-hands moment for those who follow the Albion much the same way somebody would be addcted to crack.

Our could-be hosts in Cheshire are equally delighted with the draw;

"While the likes of Kettering or Leeds get, strangely enough, Man Utd away (SURELY just a coincidence...Yeah. Right.) we're stuck with the third home draw in a row and Brighton & Hove Albion at home.

Brighton. At home.

Great." Vital Stockport, 29th November

Ho-hum. The other option, Torquay United away, doesn't exactly get tongues wagging either. It was only 2 seasons ago that we met the undefined-Gulls at Plainmoor in the cup, though a trip to the English Riviera to face a League 2 team will probably be the preferable choice to a slight majority.

The magic of the cup eh! Toodle pip.

NB: the picture is nicked from a R&D fan site, the plucky Diamonds fan using bionculars to see the rain-sodden action.

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