A great weekend for football

For the first time since 1994 a side outside the "big four" of Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United will lift the FA Cup. Better still, it won't go to a team with a recent cup pedigree, like Everton or Spurs. In fact, it'll represent the first genuine shock since 1988, when Wimbledon beat Liverpool.

Coupled with Spurs' win in the Carling Cup it gives football a real shot in the arm. Of course Blues aren't there to benefit from it, having been dumped unceremoniously out of the Cup by Huddersfield in the third round, but all the same, it re-sparks that old glimmer of hope that one day, just one day, we might lift a major trophy.

I'd like to point out that Blues should not be made to pay for this fantastic weekend of football - I consider the defeats by England in the rugby and cricket, coupled with Reading's win over Manchester City (which leaves us hanging perilously again over the drop zone) as payment enough. I know it won't work out that way, but I'd like it made known all the same...