Remember, remember…

11/03/2024 11:35 AM

… the 3rd November, 2024.

Magic of the cup, eh? I know this tournament has taken batterings over the years (some self-inflicted by the “smaller” teams as well), but it’s still always nice to win an FAC tie.

Especially one against them. On their own patch too.

Your editor wasn’t in a position to update until this afternoon**, and had I done the Friday update I planned I would have said this game was a free hit of sorts.

** – as an unrelated aside, if you ever do a transatlantic flight try not to sit in exactly the same place for the whole of it. My shoulder and neck haven’t forgiven me yet.

No, you always want to repeated kick Franchise until they stop pleading for mercy, before you nab their wallet and travel card, before pulling their trousers down and shoving a tree stump up their arse.

And yes, losing to them and having that done to you back always ruins your week.

But it maybe wouldn’t have mattered quite as much if we’d lost today, that the game there in January was always more important, and that just learning to turn up and have a go would have been enough.

Of course, we won, and you can ignore that last paragraph.

While Ronan Fucking Curtis will always have a place in collective Womble hearts, and we’re still living off the 3-0 this season, this latest defeat of Evil has a different feel of satisfaction.

Why? Because it’s at Stadium:MT, a graveyard for us in recent years.

OK, it’s a graveyard full stop, and there’s likely some truth in the rumour enochlophobia sufferers feel safe at their home games.

But we’ve shat the bed there so many times that it’s become embarrassing. It’s almost like we’ve convinced ourselves we just can’t do anything when we turn up.

Today, though, a huge hoodoo got lifted from our collective shoulders, and it feels very good indeed.

As is usual, I decided to only follow the game sporadically and kept well away from any proper following of the contest.

I’ve now done that for the last three games, and it seems to work well.

So looking at the highlights, it does look like it was quite even (and a couple of decent tackles to boot) until our strike before the break.

I’m not sure what was better – the traditional buildup, the finish or Stevens just standing there in front of a gormless audience.

You would have expected at least a couple of the crowd to respond to him, but they didn’t. It’s almost like it was a trip to Tesco for them, and it probably was.

Not as good as the second goal, it has to be said. In an era of 25-yard worldies, perfectly executed overlaps and winning efforts crafted to the nth degree, you just can’t beat a goalmouth scramble.

Did Franchise put in any effort after they went 2-0 down? Surely in an FA Cup game against your hated rivals, the crowd would be lifting you on?

Oh.

I did see this clip of their manager on social media rounds afterwards, with the bit about home fans bringing their entire family for this one.

There’s bigging such an important tie up and then there’s that. Mind you, hasn’t he said Franchise are the biggest club in the division above?

They’re not even the biggest club in Buckinghamshire.

Lemonhead getting sent off iced that particular cake, although to be fair I don’t blame any professional footballer for going for the money.

Perhaps he’s wondered if he made the right choice in the summer, especially as we were apparently close to signing him?

I expect as he trundled off with his head down, he didn’t.

Shame Bugiel didn’t add a third with that header, but he can score the winner in January there instead.

The away support was definitely audible on the clips I’ve seen, and I hope everyone who had a stronger stomach than your editor and went to Stadium:MT enjoyed themselves.

Close to 2000 isn’t too bad for a venue at a L2 side in the first round of the FAC, and the days of boycotting them died a long time ago.

As for now, we only have to play them once more this season. I said “as for now”, because there’s the very plausible situation of facing them in the playoff semis.

Imagine playing there in a semi? Imagine the return at Plough Lane? Hell, imagine we both reached the final…

For now, we can forget them and look forward to who we can get in the next round of the FAC.

(note if you’re reading this after the draw, feel free to ignore the next three paragraphs).

The second round is always a strange one. You’re one game away from the big boys, but you can easily draw a Birmingham or Bolton to scupper things.

I don’t know whether a crappy (?) non-league side at PL is what we’d ideally want, the history of this tournament suggests it’s not always the best draw.

You certainly don’t want somebody like Barrow away, with all that entails. Although Charlton at home could be fun…

(if you know who we’ve got, you can now return to your regularly scheduled SW19 update).

Perhaps the best thing of all about beating Franchise today is that we can win away from SW17.

That’s been the big problem this campaign, and we cannot rely on winning at home all the time, so hopefully this too will act as a yeah-we-can-do-that-as-well.

Feel free to enjoy this next week, because one of the unspoken joys of being a football fan is when you beat the team you hate most on their own turf.

Even better if it’s a tournament.

And if you’ve seen the draw already, or even if you haven’t, try not to ask who Franchise have got…