SkyDaz Banter: Pre-Blackburn (FA Cup)

The FA Cup has never darkened our trophy cabinet. There is probably a space ready and waiting for it with its jug ears, bits of ribbon and brasso shine. The letters ‘FA’ have more significance for our weekly opponents who taunt us regarding our lack of trophies over the years, everyone knows we’ve ‘never won FA’ (I’ll forgive them the double negative!). The FA Cup has not been kind to Birmingham City. Back in the seventies my dear old pa managed to secure tickets for the FA Cup Final to be held on my birthday, May 3rd. All we had to do was beat Fulham in a replay and I would get the honour of seeing my beloved Blues at Wembley against the mighty West Ham. I will never forget the sight of that ball dribbling towards our goal in the last few seconds of the semi final, them cockneys damn near broke my heart. The attendance for the final was 99,998, we couldn’t be bothered to go and see what might have been!

Other cup matches against Kidderminster and Altrincham left painful scars. Two of the more memorable cup defeats were against Watford and Wrexham. Both times we were drawn at home, both times we had had good runs, both times I thought it was our year and both times we got done by a team we should have beaten. No other football club has worn out the age-old cop out of ‘at least now we can concentrate on the league’ as much as we have.

My predictions are notorious for being so incredibly inaccurate, but this failure has not perturbed my enthusiasm. The Big 3 are streets ahead of anyone and for the first time in years the Premier League is a three horse race so hopefully they will be side-tracked with concentrating on the league (there’s that old chestnut again!). Mind you Chelsea could field one team for the league and one for the cup! With the exception of the Relegation 3 (Leicester, Pompey and Wolves) anyone else in the Premier League can win the FA Cup this year. A decent draw and a run of form could see any team from Newcastle down to Leeds reach the final and teams such as Charlton, Fulham and Southampton could easily go all the way. To be honest though I cannot see the cup going to anyone apart from the Big 3.

Our chance? First we have to overcome a rejuvenated Blackburn. They may be a small town in Burnley but earlier this month their second half performance started our festive season off with a deep depression. We were thumped as our defence got into the Christmas mood by defending like Keystone Kops and gifting Rovers four killer goals, three quality strikes, two yellow cards and a banished Frenchman. Surely it can only get better?

Article reproduced with kind permission of the BCFC official matchday programme.