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PHIL AGIUS |
Weblog: Sports editor's view
The unseen magic
of the FA Cup
IF FA Cup ties lasted only 85 minutes (well, that might be one way to stop Premier League managers moaning about having to play them) we'd have had a far more interesting set of results on fourth-round Saturday.
If those pesky last five had been done away with, we'd all have been talking about Blue Square Premier side Torquay's plucky goalless draw with Championship side Coventry and, even better, fellow BSP team Kettering's amazing late leveller at home to Premier League Fulham.
Of course those last few minutes were played, like an appendix of brutal realism at the end of a fairytale. And what the black magic of the cup produced was an 87th-minute winner for Coventry and two cruel Fulham goals which cut down the Poppies in their prime.
Of course not so many people will be talking about those games because ITV and Setanta, in their wisdom, chose not to show either of them.
And for missing the Kettering clash in particular, which sounds like a classic but we can't be sure, they won't be thanked.
Sympathy for Stevens
It's probably fair to say that I'm not renownedfor being a particularly sympathetic soul, and I can't remember a single sportsman found guilty of drug use that I would even give the time of day to.
But after watching the emotional interview with England rugby union prop Matt Stevens, as he came to terms with being banned from the sport for a positive (non-performance enhancing) drug test, it was hard not to have sympathy for a human being clearly in major turmoil.
"I can see why everyone hates me," was one of several harsh self-criticisms he made, but anyone with a heart should realise their time would be better spent wishing him all the best to get his life back in shape than adding to his troubles.
Howe does that work?
I keep reading that Eddie Howe has just become the youngest manager in the Football League after being handed the top job at Bournemouth aged just 31.
But that can't be right. Surely Eddie Howe, 72, is the club's stalwart kitman, who has just retired after 55 years with the club, man and boy? Or Eddie Howe, 84, is the chairman of the Cherries Supporters Club, who steadfastly stands there selling golden gamble tickets in all weathers?
It must be a generation thing - I also note that Leicester's fourth goal in their 4-2 win over Huddersfield was scored by Jack Hobbs - there was me thinking he retired in 1930 after scoring more first-class centuries than any other batsman.
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