English League Football [30th Jan - 3rd Feb 2010] **spoilers**

Two guys I know that were at the game say they were singing 'your support is ****ing ****' and 'shall we sing a song for you?' in the empty Elland road after they had to stay behind. :p

Quality.
 
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FootyMAD > Notts County MAD > NCM Features > Opinion > The magic of the FA Cup?

The magic of the FA Cup?
Feature by Jacob Daniel

Updated Thursday, 4th February 2010
Not in the eyes of ITV...

Let us start off this half article, half rant by setting the record straight. I hate ITV's coverage of football generally, I mean who else would seriously consider giving David Pleat a job? But their FA Cup coverage is so horrendous it's embarrassing, which we'll cover before moaning about them choosing Bolton Wanderers vs. Tottenham Hotspur over our trip to Fulham. From the first round, they've been trying to promote the magic of the FA Cup at places like Paulton Rovers and Northwich Victoria, yet manging to truly patronise every underdog they've covered thus far. The fourth round tie between S****horpe United and Manchester City saw a genius line of commentary, where Clive Tyldesley said "we shouldn't patronise S****horpe", before doing just that in the same setence. Then there's the pitiful highlights show, which usually involve extended highlights of a match that was broadcast live a couple of hours earlier and that has a line of commentary that gives away the rest of the results.

Mind you, up until this round, they have at least managed to give those non-league and lower league clubs who've done well enough to progress an extra financial boost and helping of publicity by putting them on the tele, if only to ensure Clive Tyldesley's monotonous FA Cup cliché quota for each round is fulfilled. However, this time, their choices for live games are horrific. We'll put the South Coast derby between Southampton and Portsmouth to one side, because that was always going to be chosen and will prove to be an extremely intriguing game with the potential for an upset. But otherwise, there is nothing but sheer dullness. Chelsea vs. Cardiff City has a minute possibility of a shock but will almost certainly be an efficient but unexciting win for the Blues like their previous victories over Watford and Preston North End. Manchester City vs. Stoke City and Bolton Wanderers vs. Tottenham Hotspur are nothing more than run-of-the-mill Premiership clashes of the sort that Sky trick viewers into watching by describing as a 'Super Sunday'.

Clearly, if ITV were interested in what the cup represents and not trying to pull in a host of part time City and Spurs fans, they'd have chosen Derby County vs. Birmingham City, a chance for a mild upset infront of a packed Pride Park in something of a local derby. They would also have picked Notts' trip to Fulham to see the first League Two side to beat a Premiership team in the competition to 2002 and their attempts to reach the quarter final. It may not have the glamour of the City of Manchester Stadium, but it's a tie that oozes the essence of what the cup is supposed to be about and it could see another step on one of the best cup runs of recent years.

Not that it really matters to us as just about anyone connected with our club will be at Craven Cottage or biting their fingernails by the radio and not sat at home watching David Bentley saunter around the Reebok Stadium in a game neither side will particularly care about. The next time they try and base their coverage around the romance of the cup or describe one Premiership team beating another as an 'upset', another part of this great competition will die.



from notts county site.
 
Theres one HUGE flaw in that entire rambling pile of twaddle. They've basically summed up the idea that the magic and interest in the cup, is only in a underdog beating a premier league side. Which is often crap, firstly a lot of the big cup upsets are usually when a woefully understrength premiership team, or a about to be relegated one puts in a performance so bad, a slightly less bad performance manages to beat them. Half the cup upsets, actually make for horrific viewing.

Likewise, Carling Cup is one thing, but I don't think Stoke, Blackburn or Spurs will "not particularly care about" the FA cup. I think all three of those will be very enthusiastic about winning, and City are without question looking for silverware of any shape or form this year, being this is their biggest chance, they'll be going balls out, and have provided a lot of very good to watch attractive football, against good and bad sides.

Theres also another thing they failed to mention, afaik a decent share of the TV money gets spread around to all fixtures, not just those shown live. However the bigger games get higher ratings, meaning when it comes to negotiating the contract, the contract is worth more money, and the smaller teams get a bigger wedge of cash, even when they aren't on TV.

The real question they should be asking is, with millions of viewers around the world, watching streams of multiple matches every weekend, when are the powers that be and clubs going to get together, make all games available, let the fans pick what game they want to watch, and make a huge amount of extra cash in the process?
 
anyone else think newcastle is going to get battered off cardiff tomorrow? i hope we win, but they are scoring for fun and we dont score enough, ive got a bad feeling they are going to win something like 3-1 or something :mad:
 
Well hopefully, being a forest fan:)

You guys probaly know chopra more than most, last few weeks he's looked the biz again.

In truth though, you stop the supply through midfield, aka Whittingham picking it up and running through the middle, cardiff are outdone... chopra gets no second scraps.

Ill listen to it tomorrow night, i reckon either 0's or 1-0 either way.

Draw would be preferd ofc:)
 
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lokiss said:
Draw would be preferd ofc:)
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behave yourself :p

at the moment theres only 3 teams in it, us, yourself and west brom. still plenty games and points to be had like, would be nice going 6 points clear, everytime we have a chance we draw.

home game aswell which we should be looking to win, cant help but feel dodgee about this one though :o
 
Just you guys wait for Barnsley's surge up the table! ;)

I said to my mate after the Forest away game you guys would be there or there abouts for promotion. I know it was only 1-0 in the last minute but you looked a really good side.

We should have beat Newcastle though! Better team that day at Oakwell.

Then we lose to Wednesday... (I'm ready to talk about it now Tummy) :p
 
United appealing against Rio's ban again.

The FA make a rod for their own back with this, if you're in consistant in your decisions things like this will happen.
 
Tummy said:
The FA make a rod for their own back with this, if you're in consistant in your decisions things like this will happen.
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Indeed, it will be a joke if the appeal isn't successful considering the stuff that the FA has let go in the past. But it's United so I fully expect a ten game ban, and probably a couple for Evra as well.
 
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