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Opinion

Number of people excited by Newcastle United FA Cup fourth round draw – Zero

4 years ago
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Monday night saw the FA Cup fourth round draw.

It is a very strange experience watching it these days as a Newcastle fan.

It is like something happening in politics which you know you should be finding really interesting but which just doesn’t feel like it has anything particularly to do with you.

I know the FA Cup hs taken a major hit over the years generally but for Newcastle United supporters it has been taken to a whole different level, or should I say, low.

As we all know, these past 12 years of Mike Ashley rule have brought only six FA Cup successes, that is games not trophies….

The season before Ashley bought the club also saw a dismal FA Cup surrender, a sign of things to come…drawing at Championship side Birmingham and then hammered bizarrely 5-1 at St James Park. That Birmingham team managed by a certain Steve Bruce.

However, in the two preceding seasons Newcastle reached the FA Cup semi-finals in 2005 and quarter-finals in 2006.

The decade before Mike Ashley arrived seeing Newcastle reach two FA Cup finals, go out at the semi stage twice, the quarter stage twice…

It is truly mental because when you start talking about it, it makes you sound so nostalgic, as though you are a real old-timer who can recall and relive the three 1950s trophy wins.

Growing up in the wilderness years of the last seventies and early eighties, the FA Cup fourth round draw (see the full one from last night below) was still a great occasion.

If Newcastle had survived round three then on a Monday lunchtime somebody would bring a transistor radio into school and you would all be huddled around it in fevered anticipation, thinking if only we can get such as such at home, then in the fifth round we could…

You had your dreams, even though you knew it was unlikely.

Nowadays, especially with Mike Ashley dragging expectations so low down, my kids and nephews/nieces, who are all Newcastle fans, have zero interest in the FA Cup as anything to get excited about. They range in age from 10 to 22 and for none of them have they had any reason to have any rush of excitement similar to what I got back in the day.

Much as I hate Mike Ashley and think Steve Bruce is a joke, I would love it if they somehow fluked an FA Cup run. Which having been gifted a a path to the fifth round with now only two League One clubs to beat at home, shouldn’t be beyond even them.

Full FA Cup fourth round draw:

Watford or Tranmere Rovers v Wolverhampton Wanderers or Manchester United

Hull City v Chelsea

Southampton v Middlesbrough or Tottenham Hotspur

Queens Park Rangers v Sheffield Wednesday

Bournemouth v Arsenal

Northampton Town v Derby County

Brentford v Leicester City

Millwall v Sheffield United

Reading or Blackpool v Cardiff City or Carlisle United

West Ham United v West Bromwich Albion

Burnley v Norwich City

Bristol Rovers or Coventry City v Birmingham City

Manchester City v Fulham

Rochdale or Newcastle United v Oxford United

Portsmouth v Barnsley

Bristol City or Shrewsbury Town v Liverpool

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