24
Cup frustrations
You can imagine Graeme Souness’ half-time team-talk while 0-0 away to Yeading – it wasn’t
Losing to Wolves earlier this month will have frustrated the fans, players and management
the greatest. We eventually won 2-0 to end their
alike. Sitting where we do in the table, it
hopes of a giant killing, but these games are
doesn’t look like we’re in a relegation fight but
big – they make players’ careers. In fact,
it’ll be hard to challenge for European places,
DJ Campbell played for Yeading that day
too. Of course, the league is the be all and end
and it was that match that propelled him to
all and requires your full concentration, but it’s
professional football.
always nice to get a cup run. I think Roy approached the game well
There’s always a small risk for top players when facing smaller sides, but it’s less
and put out a strong side. You’ve only got
prevalent in the FA Cup. In pre-season, for
to look at the bench; he normally rests Wilf
example, there genuinely are people trying
entirely for cup games, but this time he not
to hurt you. I remember playing a friendly for
only named him in the squad but brought him
Palace and Neil Warnock took me off because,
on for that added spark.
for whatever reason, I was targeted. Claude
The FA Cup is arguably the biggest domestic trophy in the world and we would have drawn Chorley in the Fourth Round had
Davis was getting angry, saying ‘put me on,’ because he wanted to give a bit back! But it’s a little bit different in the FA Cup
we progressed, so there was an opportunity
– teams are desperate to win and, against
for a half-decent run.
Yeading, you could see their delight when big
But, as we’ve seen, sides like Chorley,
Newcastle players turned up – not me, mind.
Marine and Crawley Town don’t just act as
On the flipside, you don’t want to be the team
easy passes to the next round…
that loses. On the coach going up, you think
Giant killings
‘please don’t let today be the tournament’s biggest shock’. If we’d have lost to Yeading, it still would have been spoken about today. You
I played for Newcastle against Yeading in
go there, are professional and try to get the
2004/05. They’ve merged with Hayes now,
job done.
but back then there were 123 league places
We made the semi-final that year, so
between the two clubs which was one of the
when people ask me how far I got in the FA
biggest gaps in the competition’s history. We
Cup, I’ve always said: ‘Semi-final – we played
played at Loftus Road rather than their home
Manchester United at the Millennium Stadium.’
stadium and so 10,000 Yeading fans turned up.
But I was doing some research before speaking
We put a strong side out - Jean-Alain Boumsong made his debut, Craig Bellamy, Titus Bramble, Lee Bowyer, Jermaine Jenas.
on the radio recently and found out I didn’t get played! ‘Sub not used’ - I was gutted. For some reason, all these years I thought
Newcastle were one of the biggest sides in
I’d played that game. I think maybe my missus
the country and they held us for 50 minutes,
asked one day and I tried to impress her – ‘yeah,
which was a big story and a huge threat to us.
yeah, I played a semi-final’. It must have stuck!
official matchday programme