You know the drill by now.
So, Spurz at Wombley then. And here was me thinking the FAC was dying on its feet – christ, I bet anyone on social media is finding their account blowing up with the excitement.
Usually, when we reach the third round (or indeed have a potentially mouthwatering tie anyway), it tends to be a bit of disappointment. Think of it like finding out a band has a “special guest” and they end up being the drummer from Blue Oyster Cult.
This, on the other hand, is everything you hoped you would get before the tie was made.
A few things. We’ll probably get stuffed, although Spurz aren’t likely to put out their big guns for this. Like the Liverpool game a couple of years ago, there’s always the danger that this ends up being our cup final and we go flat for the remainder of the season.
And that is something we don’t need to happen.
It will undoubtedly give a massive boost to the coffers though, for the central midfielders with the speed of a broken down tanker centre forward(s) we need. OK, I would have liked it to be at White Hart Lane (the new one) but Wembley ain’t too shabby.
Besides, we always do OK there.
In a season that has been various shades of shit, on and off the field, this is a big shot in the arm. OK, the FA Cup is not the league, it’s a totally different kettle of fish, but when was the last time you felt the excitement around the club that you do right now?
Already, people are talking about allocation there. 3000? 12000? We won’t take the latter, but we could well see the biggest lot of interest since the last game at Wombley.
For an ordinary round in this competition, I think we have to go back to the WFC era and Fulham away (stop shuddering). From memory, that was 5000 or so, and perhaps we can muster that figure up again?
It’s against a Premier League side, it’s Wombley, and we’re not that small a club.
How will the game go? Right now, who cares? I expect nobody will be euphemistically injured for this one, and it may well be a shop window for a few. We didn’t do too badly against the Scousers, with arguably a worse collection of players (albeit a better team).
We came out of that game with a lot of credit, and history could well repeat itself.
It will probably be played on the Sunday, which is when your editor is heading to the United States, so I will manage to miss this game. Mind you, I missed both the playoff semis against t’Stanley, so I fully expect people to pay me to leave earlier…
One thing a few people at the club will be sighing with relief about right now is, we have a CRM in place to start dealing with this. You think of the interest in this one, and add it to the database of people already “reached” – it’s going to be a helluva lot easier than Sutton was last season, anyway.
True, the CRM itself needs refining, to put it mildly. I’m reliably informed from somebody who tried signing up for it over the weekend that they followed the video instructions to the letter and it still crashed on them.
A push to get all teething troubles (and there are more than a couple) would be a good move considering the strain it’s going to be put under when ticket sales go live. It will be a big pain in the arse doing that, but not nearly as much as having to sort out errors that people find…
Anything else about this? Not really, it’s Spurs in the FA Cup. It would be even more excellent in the pre-game buildup to hear that the s106s have finally been signed – there was a hint that progress might be made on the OS this morning**, and a couple of comments on the grapevine suggests it might be close to pen-to-paper stage.
** – as an aside, this has bugged me for ages – where is the picture of the crowd on that link taken? Is it Bolton? Oh, and yes – the comments section is on a hiatus, possibly never returning. Too many posters were using fake IP and email addresses, and I can’t trace their true identity…
It’s a big game to genuinely get excited about. Deep down, I think those of a certain age miss (to a degree) playing Spurs on a semi-regular basis. Maybe not the lack of a level playing field these days, and the whole PL culture puts some off, but it will be a trip back into the mid-90s for people again.
Although for those with long memories – remember when we played them six times in one season? And the less said about the last time we played them in the FAC the better…