I think there are some myths and misconceptions about this apparent dimming of the FA Cup light. Fact – There are a couple of recent constants that have dummed down the FA Cup: there was obviously the Manchester United fiasco and there is the prioritisation of money over glory that results in managers fielding weakened teams. But I am not so sure that reduced attendances is much more than a red herring because there has certainly not been a decline in the thirst for FA Cup information or coverage.

This article in the Daily Scrote was yet another hatchet job on football which shouted “WHERE HAVE ALL THE FANS GONE?”. Their simplistic graphic showed FA Cup attendances were down by “126,948” or an average of 1,283, although this did not include the games on Sunday that featured five of the best supported teams in the country. If you include those games and the ones from Monday and Tuesday the picture is significantly different, the decline was 118,399 and, more significantly, a much lower average than the 1,283 they indicated. What they also failed to mention was that 66% (18 of those 27) of those home teams actually have an average attendance down on last season anyway. They also fail to note whether the average decline is more or less than that overall decline? It’s actually quite close.

Declines in attendances can be a sign of lower disposable income for fans, tighter season ticket restrictions with no cup tickets included or even a disillusionment with the game itself. The latter point being why I am talking to you about this at all. Were the well supported big teams all at home/away thus skewing the average? Were there lots of teams at home who have good support when they are doing well, or low when doing badly? Did a lot of less well supported teams happen to get further than those with big attendances? How far is the travelling distance between home and away teams? Is attendance in general down?

If you get a lower league side drawn at home to any side from a higher league, the attendance is almost always an increase on the season’s average and, in many instances, a season’s best attendance. If the lower side is drawn away (lots of that in this round), the home fans do sometimes stay away but the away fans turn up in droves. It’s all relative. It’s not necessarily different within league competitions either. In the Premier League, for example, Birmingham’s home attendance against Manchester United was 25% higher than against Wigan, Everton’s scouse-derby attendance was around 20% higher than some of the games against more lowly Premier League teams, Villas attendance against the big teams is 15% higher than against some lower sides, although not all.

All of these factors play a part in attendance and yet still there are anomalies. Has anyone actually worked out a method, taking these factors into consideration, that can accurately reflect whether FA Cup attendances are going up, or down? The answer to that, as far as I can ascertain, is, no.

Shall we have a go? No, we shan’t, because there are those anomalies that would make the method more complex. Such as? Wigan’s attendances against some smaller teams are bigger than against better and more local teams. Does this mean Wigan fans are turning up more when there is a better chance of winning, rather than when playing superstars? Until tomorrows Tyne Wear derby, presumably, Sunderland’s biggest attendance of the season has been against Blackpool, despite the fact they’ve faced United and Arsenal at the Stadium of Light.

So, what happened this weekend? Well, of the clubs who had a significant drop in attendance Watford, Huddersfield, Swansea, Norwich, Burnley, Bristol City, Sunderland, Stoke, Fulham, Bolton and Blackburn were all playing at home to teams at least one league below them so, as we’ve seen above, a drop in attendance is hardly unusual. There were, however, five other games that saw the home side’s attendance drop. Those were games that featured Championship sides at home to Premier League sides and, you know what, the drop in those five games accounted for nearly 1/5th of the overall drop. We could also add that six of the seven worst drops involved Premier League sides against lower league sides and those six games account for about 60% of the overall drop.

So, what can we deduce from all this? FA Cup attendances down? Yes. General attendances down? Yes. Are there mitigating factors for the FA Cup drop? Yes. The obvious thing is that the popularity of (at least certain) Premier League sides is not all that, which casts further doubt on the veracity of the Daily Mail’s FA Cup death knell. In summary, the Mail’s analysis is incomplete and their conclusion is deeply fIawed (quelle surprise). And the only conclusions we can draw, having seen booming attendances at lower league and non-league grounds with our own eyes, that the only competition that has lost its lustre is the Premier League and it is dragging down the FA Cup more than general dwindling attendances. The FA Cup is, at least anecdotally, alive and well and that (incomplete) statistics can prove anything. At least ours are more complete than the Daily Mail’s.

And finally … there is one game that we haven’t mentioned. Coventry against Crystal Palace, Championship against Championship. This game attracted just 50% of the fans at an average Coventry home game, which was the worst percentage drop in attendance in all FA Cup games. Two things. 1) This is the exception that proves our rule. 2) Why would you want to go and watch Coventry anyway, they are the most tedious team of the last 20 years. One relegation and 19 seasons of mid table mediocrity. Utterly pointless waste of your life.

Crocodile Shoes

As the football season prepares to, once again, launch itself headlong into the nation’s consciousness, Andy Walker of Wembley FC launches himself headlong into the eyes of the therealfacup.

Any parallels between our first two interview victims are tenuous and very much not football related. They’re both very busy people, both centre backs, both appear to like visiting the non United bits of America and both will be playing in the FA Cup. The main difference, though, is at every home game Andy can gaze wistfully at Wembley’s big arch during the moments when the ball is at the other end of the Vale Farm pitch.

Currently in the Combined Counties Premier Division, Andy’s an old hand at the FA Cup but the last two campaigns could be said to be mixed. The 3-0 beating Wembley gave Haringey Borough two seasons ago after a replay is, undoubtedly, a high point, particularly as he ruefully admits it’s “the only time I’ve ever ended up on the winning side.” Incidentally, that game is one of many documented by author John Stoneman who went on his own journey through FA Cup.

Andrew Walker - Wembley FC

Job: Market Research
Car: N/A
Nickname: None given
Favourite Player: Peter Beardsley

I’ve no idea how few players we’ll come across this year that appear in a book about the FA Cup (very few) but Andy won’t be the only one to have been sent off in it. He won’t thank me much for dredging up the second yellow against Royston last season that signalled the end of his game and, judging by reports, the end of Wembley’s participation in the FA Cup that season. We weren’t there but the Wembley website hints Andy was, at the time, holding the defence together, while other reports suggest he was a little unfortunate with at least one of the cards.

We won’t dwell on that but we will dawdle a while on Andy’s favourite team. therealfacup won’t divert too frequently into the upper echelons of the game but, sadly, Andy’s team is no longer there and they do crop up regularly in the interview. From his favourite player to football’s Gaffer of Gaffers via the possibly thorny topic of football finance we wind. There’s little magic here.

Most Difficult Opponent: Anyone with pace
Favourite Other Team: Newcastle United
Pre-Match Meal: Cereal
Favourite TV Show: The Apprentice

The word ‘great’ is attributed to many but deserved by few. As I’m sure we’re all now aware, former Newcastle and Ipswich manager , Sir Bobby Robson, finally succumbed to the cancer he has already fought off four times. All Newcastle, Ipswich, Fulham and maybe even West Brom fans will definitely have taken a moment last weekend but, the thing is, they wouldn’t have been alone. “Very few managers achieve success while still being admired by opponents” said Andy, catching precisely the mood of the footballing nation and even those outside.

The word ‘great’ is not, however, one that sits comfortably with Newcastle at the moment, certainly not when it comes to finance and the perhaps unfounded rumours of administration. Andy believes the amount of money in the game is “fine, as long as clubs are generating as much as they are spending. Problems only arise when clubs try to live beyond their means”. I’d be misquoting Andy if I implied he made that comment in relation to Newcastle, which he didn’t, but, obviously, they are one of many top flight teams who have spent beyond their means and the relevance looms large at St James’ now they’ve dropped a division.

Celery

Another manager who made it into this interview is, even less surprisingly than Sir Bob, Andy’s current manager at Wembley. Perhaps more surprising is the context in which he cropped up. “Last season one of our players left their boots in the changing room after training. By the Saturday they had been concreted into a bucket” said Andy. The culprit? Ian Bates, Wembley manager and, apparently, dressing room joker.

With this anecdote seemingly rather at odds with the common perception of a manager, I asked Andy about the veracity of his response to the ‘favourite pop star’ question. Without giving too much away I am now wondering if Gaffer Bates is really the team joker. “Celery and umbrellas” indeed.

“My dad always told me he regretted giving up football at a young age and that has motivated me to keep working at it” says Andy of the biggest influence on his career. Maybe that’s why there’s no resting on laurels and his ambition is “to keep improving and help get Wembley back to the top end of the table, as we were a couple of years ago.”

Something that surprised me a little at both Andy and Martyn’s responses was that they had not heard any notable terrace songs in games in which they had played. I suppose it’s not entirely surprising they haven’t heard songs about themselves, not even all pro footballers get that accolade, but to not have heard any at all got me wondering. I don’t have a vast memory bank of FA Cup/non-league games but even I can remember some tunes. He says there’s “not usually enough people there to get any songs going” but I can only suspect that Andy is so immersed in the game that he doesn’t notice???

Last week we broached the topic of the magic of the cup and it’s individual nature. Like Martyn before him, Andy’s hope for future rounds was not to make the short trip to THE stadium itself and not to draw one of the big 4 or even the team he supports but a team that means something to him, his former club Horley Town. There’s a reality here, there’s a lack of the mediated response of footballers claiming their new club to be the one they’ve always dreamt of playing for. There’s no claims of an imminent title win, no boasts of supremacy, it’s all about bettering oneself, doing your best and enjoying it while respecting where you’ve come from and who got you there.

This is refreshing, it’s why we wanted to go to such games. It also may not be a revelation to many reading, maybe it is, but we’re new at this game and we like it.

Thanks again to Andy for taking time out from work to answer a few questions, it’s much appreciated, and good luck in today’s big kick off against Chertsey.

One final thing though. “It’s not about the good balls, it not about the bad balls, its all about the right balls.” This is apparently Andy’s favourite football cliche? Is this another in joke? Will one of his team mates please let us know?

Thanks to Andy Walker and also to Laura for facilitating the interview.

Little fanfare will greet the six clubs who kick off this year’s festival on Friday the 14th August, which is a shame, but this website seeks to polish the trumpets, parp the trombones and generally give the less wealthy the opportunity to compose their own symphony of football. Get used to it, I shall crowbar many more of those in over the next few months

So, what does this year hold? You can put money on the magic of the cup continuing as the hardy perennial. What is the magic of the cup? It’s impossible to define, there is no over arching magic, everyone’s magic is different and personal.

Magic to me might well be the big-4-free affair of Bolton .v. Hull in the semi final, it certainly will be to the respective fans. I will thank god, or Roger Osborne as he is more affectionately known, it isn’t Chelsea against Man Utd, although of course that will be the other semi. But the nay-sayers will, no doubt, should the unlikely happen, moan about the lack of glamour in Hull .v. Bolton. Neither are ‘good’ enough to satisfy the bling lust of the average armchair fan but yet neither are they lowly enough to satisfy the ‘magic’ lust from the same armchair.

The big 4 semi though will of course be billed as game of the round, clash of the titans, prime time, SPLENDID SUNDAY and, of course, one will be the ‘eventual winners’. And the magic in that is where exactly? And herein lies the problem with the FA Cup and it’s relationship with modern fans and the modern media. Both would like a lower league side to get to the final but when they do it’s a shame they are going to get hammered, or if two lower league sides get to the final it’s not glamorous enough. Enough! Please, make up your mind. Do you want the magic or do you want Cristal and platinum plated teeth?

The real magic is rarely to be found in the final, the semi final and infrequently in the quarters. So where does this mystery lurk? We here at therealfacup are not battle hardened FA Cup experts but, if our experience last season is anything to go by, the magic lies in the first seven rounds. It’s the undiluted but half expected joy of Havant fans wryly predicting ‘it’s happening again’ after beating Crawley. It’s Oxhey Jets just being there, seeing as though they’ve only existed for about 30 years. And it’s hearing what it means to the players as you stand next to the touchline.

You can’t really describe these things, you have to experience them yourself and be one of the few hundred that will. A few more might read about that magic on blogs like this but only if the club responsible for that magic starts nudging the 3rd round will the comfily placed, judgemental millions hear about that magic via the conduit of a commentator who has read about it on a blog like this. Or, a commentator who has got their researcher to read about it on a blog like this.

To dredge up … errr … a thing … if a tree falls down in a wood and no one hears it, does it actually make a sound? That sound is the magic of the FA Cup. Of all the billions of magical noises that will be made in or about the FA Cup this season, the majority of the sounds will not be heard. Get out there and listen to them or they won’t actually have happened.