You Just Never Know What To Expect

FOR every Lincoln City beating Burnley, there’s a Paulton Rovers getting hammered by Norwich City. The yang to Altrincham knocking out Barnsley is the yin of West Brom running riot against Gateshead.

You never know what you’re going to get when the FA Cup comes around. Climbing out of bed at 6am last Saturday, I wasn’t exactly expecting to be writing about a Non-League side reaching the FA Cup quarter-finals later that afternoon.

A replay, maybe. A National League team reaching the last eight? Surely not. But that, as we are legally obliged to refer to it, is the Magic of the FA Cup (™).

Even National League media manager Colin Peake was on his feet when Sean Raggett headed in Lincoln City’s winner at Turf Moor.

Privilege

Every time you witness one of these moments in person it is special. Stressful, because there’s a report to bash out, but it’s a privilege to have a small window into a day the protagonists will talk about forever.

In this week’s Good, Bad and the Ugly feature on a page not too far from this one, Lee Fowler talks about the intimacy of Non-League. How the players feel close to the fans and even the journalists.

Believe it or not, at this level particularly, we tend to all get on.

When you know someone’s background and how hard they’re working for something, you share their joy.