BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

Paolo can confirm just what the Cup is about

IT'S hard to think of two more different characters than Swindon's Paolo Di Canio and Roberto Martinez of Wigan and the loopy Italian could come out on top against the Spaniard in Saturday's FA Cup third-round tie at the County Ground.

There's no getting away from the fact Di Canio is totally crazy. He has already fallen out with about fifty members of the Robins squad as well as the fight with Leon Clark but yet still Swindon are riding high in League Two and sniffing a giantkilling.

You can just imagine the Swindon dressing-room before kick-off and Di Canio will have them buzzing.

Their biggest grudge match this season came against Crawley, a game Swindon won easily and the Italian destroyed gobby Red Devils boss Steve Evans in the pre-match press conferences.

"I'm happy for him if he has one line in the national newspaper," said Di Canio at the time. "I've never heard his name. I don't have anything to say to a person who is one of a million people talking about me in the world.

"I've played in front of mafia people. People like him make me laugh - Ilaugh in the face of them. I laughed in the face of 70,000 Manchester United fans when I scored, you could imagine what it would be like if I was worried by the words of him who I've never heard of before."

Di Canio has been far more pleasant regarding Martinez and called him a "fantastic person" a "gentleman" and a "sportsman" but that no doubt is to lull him into a false sense of security.

I'm banking on Di Canio eating Martinez alive on the touchline and then spitting him out when the League Two team are through to round four. 

The rest of the coupon looks a bit tricky with all the teams set to rest players but I fancy Blackpool to beat Fleetwood in the beach derby and Millwall to win their clash with Dagenham but my big single is on the Robins to rock Wigan.

All together now, Paolo Di Canioooo, Paolo Di Canioooo...