Despite the very best efforts of the Football Association to devalue the FA Cup, it still has some appeal.

A few clubs had very special weekends to prove there is the legendary “Magic of the Cup.” Obviously, the biggest congratulations must go to Macclesfield who beat last season’s cup holders, Crystal Palace, fair and square at the Moss Rose. Respect also to Palace for the way they took defeat and for handing over their share of the gate to the Non-League Club. #respect

Manchester United were well beaten at home by Brighton & Hove Albion whilst Manchester City put ten past Exeter City who took an impressive 7,000 to the Etihad. QPR took 10,000 across London to the London Stadium where the Hammers scraped home 2-1. It might save Nuno for a few more days but it was not impressive. Spurs (see below) were beaten at home by a strong Villa side who seemed to have the tactics spot on. Difficult days for Thomas Frank.

Other things of note: both Southampton (3-2 winners at Doncaster) and Spurs wore one-off special shirts. Spurs was a rather tenuous link to whilst Southampton was the 50th anniversary of the 1976 FA Cup Final win against Tommy Docherty’s Manchester United. Southampton were a second division side managed by Lawrie McMenemy and were the underdogs. A late winner by Bobby Stokes sealed a tight 1-0 victory. My childhood hero, David Peach was Number 3 for the Saints. The shirt is available from the official Southampton FC website

Tottenham launched a campaign to pay homage to their 1901 FA Cup-winning team to mark the 125th anniversary of the historic achievement.

By winning the world’s oldest football cup competition, Spurs became the first and remain the only non-league team to lift the trophy.

The club played in the Southern League Division One at the time, but against the odds, on 27 April 1901, they overcame top-flight Sheffield United 3-1 in the FA Cup final replay at Burnden Park in Bolton.

On Friday, Spurs launched a campaign to celebrate what is described as a “ground-breaking” historic achievement and hope to educate younger generations on the “significance” of that win.

Full story on the official club website. Sadly, the shirts sold out immediately but are available all over eBay etc for £300 ….presumably from grifters who spend their lives complaining about fans being taken advantage of.

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