Did He Really Mean It?

“This week sees us travel to AFC Hornchurch for the 3rd round qualifier in the FA Cup. They will obviously start as big favourites. It is a hard enough task but we are burdened with the fact that four of the starters from the game at Brentwood are cup tied. AFC Hornchurch have also been fortunate enough to have a very tough looking fixture away at Ramsgate postponed last night. Our Dulwich fans have been reminding me of the last time they went there in the FA Cup and got a 9-0 drubbing and how painful that was. With all that it’s a real back to the wall task….just what I love!!! We will be massive underdogs but put a few pence on us because I fancy we could produce the first shock of the round.”

So says Craig Edwards on tonight’s impending fixture, and I share his optimism in seeing the Dulwich FA Cup bandwagon continue, give Phil a start and see what he can achieve I say!

The cup is all about upsets, those giant killing memories that capture the nation’s attention and focus on some small, unsuspecting town where suddenly everyone is a football fan and everyone shuts up shop to follow the next round. I mean, after seeing some drab finals, what neutral remembers the end result or what happened? I certainly don’t, the final tends to be unremarkable, whereas its in the earlier ties, the wins by the Wrexham giant killing machine or teams like Leyton Orient doing one over on their fellow Londoners, these are the games which people talk about for years, I can’t imagine many folk spending much more than a minute or two discussing what a scintillating final the new Wembley saw in 2007.

We’re not quite at that stage yet, but this is the first real hurdle, this is where we could move from being on familiar ground supporting a club we’ve grown to love, to supporting a team we know nothing about (other than how they’ve previously humped us) and play at the arse end of nowhere.

‘Mon the hamlet!