Wednesday, November 21st, 2007...11:34 am by Richard

Watch out Robbie, here comes the FA Cup Run Team

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‘I’ve only ever broken a bed jumping up and down on it, never through sex or owt’

‘Oh, I have broken one whilst having sex’

‘Well….you are a big unit’

‘Yeah, and she wasn’t the lightest either’

And so the run continued into Bath. (’Barth’ for us southeners, ‘Baff’ for the northern element) And from the moment we stepped onto the train, it was a fantastic day. The banter on the train was INCREDIBLE. The introduction of the video refs proved invaluable for Tom’s barrage of endlessly shit jokes.

I could go on with a lengthy description of the day, complete with me being brilliant at pool, but all I’ll say is that if anyone wants a Team Bath poster, I have about 25 at home. And I loved every single minute of this round.

And so to Vale Park. Home of Port Vale. Stoke-on-Trent. Now, when the draw was made, I threw myself on the floor and screamed, ‘ARGH, NOT PORT VALE!!’, but now I can’t wait for it. Our first big excursion in the name of the FA Cup, and we will be following the lowest placed team in the competition. Unfortunately, it looks like we will have to follow them from the home end, but these are all minor details in the grand scheme of things. I look forward to a new ground to tick off my list, an exotic pie and a chuckle at the local accent (but not too loud). I look forward to the meeting at the station, the handshakes, the banter, the inevitable shake of the head as yet another one of Tom’s jokes is denied. I look forward to a pint of bitter and pretending to enjoy it.

My memories of Port Vale are fairly minimal. My earliest is of the now defunct Anglo Italian Cup, where they were dismatled by Torino in the final at Wembley (my memory may be playing tricks on me. Someone check this). The second comes from 1998, when my side (Arsenal) drew them in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup and preceded to churn out a 0-0 draw at Highbury. The replay saw Dennis Bergkamp score a trademark wonder goal, only for Vale to equalise in the last minute. We squeezed through on penalties, and went on to win the Cup that year, beating Newcastle in the final.

Nearly 10 years on, an Arsenal fan returns to Vale Park, but this time he is supporting the biggest underdogs in the whole competition. God bless the FA Cup.

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