Cup of woe

The romance of the Cup, eh? Well, at about 5.45pm yesterday, the romance died. Trust the FA Cup to come along and deliver, right on cue, a perfectly-timed knee to the testiculars. Not quite as painful as the two successive finals in 1998 and 1999 which I also witnessed in the flesh, but painful all the same. The truth is that we were humbled by lower division opposition who played their absolute best, although on another day we could have sneaked a draw and a St James' Park replay. For the most part, it was the familiar away day story: more than just the three moments of staggering defensive ineptitude, Shearer on the scoresheet, Bellamy incurring the wrath of the home fans, a quite incredibly lazy performance from Robert in comparison to the superb showings from the untrumpeted likes of Lescott and Ndah... All in all, a day to forget.

Looking forward, then: West Ham away this coming weekend. They've not won at home in the league this season. So, there's a script there just waiting for us to play the role of obliging fall guys. Oh joy.