Sourced from Daily Echo article
READER LETTER: I can recall when the FA Cup was the pinnacle of achievement
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I AM what is called an old “dodderer”… despite being here, I am told I am not with it.
Well, I can recall when the FA Cup was the pinnacle of achievement for our football clubs. It was not the Coca-Cola Cup or the McDonald’s Cheeseburger FA Cup, it was simply the FA Cup.
I can remember when an ex-German prisoner of war, a paratrooper no less, played in goal despite apparently having his neck broken by an attacking centre forward.
For the modern-day people who are with it, this was a strapping big player in the very centre of the goal mouth, who often put the ball and the goalkeeper into the back of the net.
I remember seeing Stanley Mathews, the wizard, playing his heart out for Blackpool and putting that last cross in for the centre forward to head the goal in that got Mathews his first and only Cup Winners Medal.
They played their hearts out because if one was injured the team was down to 10 men, and not another full team on stand-by if they felt tired.
Today, we have foreign managers who appear to have no knowledge of the importance of the FA Cup to teams’ supporters. They are so “with it” that they train players 24/7, so finely tuned an athlete that they find it impossible to play two games in three days.
So unimportant do these managers think the FA Cup is, that they play a complete side, none of whom were given more than a four in rating by the Echo, so that my school first team in 1945 could have wiped them out.
This team was sent to play Arsenal, a renowned team in my day, two of the players in that team were even full time cricketers, the Compton Brothers.
Today, they appear to be more supreme actors throwing themselves theatrically about the pitch, than actual footballers.
This is called progress by those who are with it.
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