Ready for the Draw?

By Longsider
December 6 2003

One of the most popular events in football takes place this Sunday. The draw for the Third Round of the FA Cup. The 'tradition' of the draw taking place on the Monday has lasted one season with it reverting back to the Sunday much to delight of the TV audience.

Last season proved to be the best Cup Run in over 20 years before we were dumped out at Watford.

We were originally drawn away to Grimsby in the Third round. On a cold, wet snowy day in Cleethorpes the sides threw away a two goal lead and were forced to beat the Marriners in a replay at the Turf.

By the time we'd beaten Grimsby 4-0 we already knew we'd be playing at Brentford in the 4th round. The Bees had knocked out Derby in the previous round so it wasn't going to be easy. It wasn't easy and they threw everything at us but we were clincial on the day and ended up going through with the comfortable looking scoreline 3-0.

The excitment was starting to build up and then we got the worst possible draw in the 5th round.....away to Fulham, no TV, small crowd and little chance of progressing. Alan Moore gave us the lead at Loftus Road before the 'Home' side equalised just before half time. The Cottagers had to come to Burnley and win, something they haven't done since Hadrian's wall was built, if they were to play the 'easiest' team in the quarters Watford. The Clarets completely outclassed Fulham in fron the of the cameras and won 3-0.

The game at Watford was to be shown on BBC television and demand for tickets was huge. The 4,500 tickets that were made availabe were snapped up within a day and half of them going on sale. It was the first time in 20 years we'd reached this far and everyone was up for the Cup. Sadly the player's weren't and threw in one of the poorest performances the supporters had seen in years.....9 months on and the defeat still hurts, why oh why did we not perform???

I left the ground vowing never to watch another cup game again......and then a mate quite casually said to me "there's always next year"

He was right, every football fan in the country always hopes that next year will be their year and i'm already getting butterflies....who will we get on Sunday?

List of the Teams and their respective numbers:

1 Arsenal
2 Aston Villa
3 Birmingham City
4 Blackburn Rovers
5 Bolton Wanderers
6 Bradford City
7 Burnley
8 Cardiff City
9 Charlton Athletic
10 Chelsea
11 Coventry City
12 Crewe Alexandra
13 Crystal Palace
14 Derby Country
15 Everton
16 Fulham
17 Gillingham
18 Ipswich Town
19 Leeds United
20 Leicester City
21 Liverpool
22 Manchester City
23 Manchester United
24 Middlesbrough
25 Millwall
26 Newcastle United
27 Norwich City
28 Nottingham Forest
29 Portsmouth
30 Preston North End
31 Reading
32 Rotherham United
33 Sheffield United
34 Southampton
35 Stoke City
36 Sunderland
37 Tottenham Hotspur
38 Walsall
39 Watford
40 West Bromwich Albion
41 West Ham United
42 Wigan Athletic
43 Wimbledon
44 Wolverhampton Wanderers
45 Northampton Town or Weston Super Mare
46 Rochdale or Luton Town
47 Colchester United or Aldershot Town
48 Macclesfield Town or Cambridge United
49 Peterborough United or Grimsby Town
50 Bristol City or Barnsley
51 Oldham Athletic or Blackpool
52 Burton Albion or Hartlepool United
53 Gravesend & Northfleet or Notts County
54 Telford United or Brentford
55 Woking or Kidderminster Harriers
56 Hornchurch or Tranmere Rovers
57 AFC Bournemouth or Accrington Stanley
58 Cheltenham Town or Leyton Orient
59 Yeovil Town or Barnet
60 Port Vale or Scarborough
61 Wycombe Wanderers or Mansfield Town
62 Southend United or Lincoln City
63 Scunthorpe United or Sheffield Wednesday
64 Swansea City or Stevenage Borough