Whitey Grandad

The other rule is 'always play your best team'.

The other.

What is the trophy anyway, a tin of paint?

It all started to go wrong when the home clubs kept all of the gate money. Then Sky came along and the rest is history....

You are probably right. The Woolston to Fareham link is usually being worked on at the weekend.

Any night except Wednesday and I would be there. It'll have to be Sky Plus for me.

Whe you put it like that it's amazing how far we have come since the end of last season. We have Lambert and Connolly for less than we sold Dyer and McGoldrick, and their desire and hunger is quite refreshing.

Is that you on the left in the dress Wes?

The important question is... If you had to pay good money for him, would you buy him for the club?

Standard adult of £20 - £22 (category C). I think it might have been a special offer of 2 successive games for £30 total. Basic adult tickets range from £20 to £30 depending on location and the category of the visitors, so their prices are not bad, but we are talking about 'Wigan'.

The 7-days no longer apply: 'the suspension will now be automatic as opposed to the current seven day rule.'

Indeed you are quite correct. For temporary (not season-long) loans written permission has to be given by the lending club by 12:00 noon on the Friday before the date fixed for playing the round in order for the player to be 'eligible'. As for disciplinary procedures and bans, I believe that these only apply to games for which the player is 'eligible'. Of course, if Trotman were to collect a fifth booking and therefore a ban, what is there to stop Southampton asking Preston for written permission knowing full well that he is banned from playing the next match for which he would be 'eligible'?

Matches tend to go to the team that wants it the most.

Interesting point that. He is eligible to play as he is officially on loan at Southampton. As far as I know, any other 'understandings' about not playing against the club that holds your registration or not getting cup-tied are unofficial and cannot be written into the loan agreement.

Murty for me, every time.

So they said, whoever 'they' were. I'm perfectly happy with our present situation and there are very few old boys from recent years that I would like to see back - apart from Walcott, that is, if he could stay fit.

Draws I would have preferred.... Home to anybody. Away to... Bath City, Gateshead, Barrow, Cambridge United (for old times' sake), York City, Hereford United, Exeter City, Port Vale/Stevenage, Carlisle/Morecambe, Barnet, Accrington Stanley, Staines, Rushden & Diamonds, Nortwich Victoria, Aldershot, Wrexham, or even Kettering Town. Can we draw it again? Best out of three?

That's one way of looking at it. But confidence builds upon success. One school of thought would have been to rest Connolly for last Friday but starting the game and scoring those two goals will have done him a lot more good than staying at home and 'having a rest'. And who did I want? 'Any lower-league team at home, or if it's away then some proper football ground that I haven't been to before in some interesting part of the country'. I was wrong all all counts.

Right result, wrong route to get there.

Now you've got me thinking.... At present 20 teams go through from round 2 to join 44 big-boys in round 3 where they will have a probability of 19 in 63 of meeting one of them, so about 70%. If those 44 were to appear in round 2 there would be a total of 128 teams so 84 would be 'little' ones each having a probability of 83 in 127 of meeting a big-boy, i.e. about 35%. But there would be more little-boys in the draw. My head hurts now so I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to calculate the most-likely number of little-boy/big-boy matches in each scenario. I'm off to Argos before they close. (I think you must be right, though. A 2nd round draw with 84:44 little:big teams must mean a greater number of big on little meetings)

But it does increase the chances that a 'little team' can make it through to a tie at one of the 'big boys'. Like most other people, I suspect, I never used to think much about the FA Cup rounds 1 & 2 and all the mattered was who we got in the third round. It does feel strange, though, not having to worry about getting a match at Old Trafford just because we desperately needed the money. Let some other desperate team get that - like Pompey.

Oh, and who do I want? Any lower-league team at home, or if it's away then some proper football ground that I haven't been to before in some interesting part of the country. That'll be Norwich away then.

I was wondering too, so from the FA site: Live Second Round proper draw 3.35pm, Sunday 8 November 2009 Live on ITV1

That is no longer an option. The home team can no longer switch the ground.

A sensible question and still no definitive answer.