A FAREWELL TO THE FAIRYTALE

Non-League representation in the FA Cup is over for another year, and it's hard to shake the feeling that there will be fewer of the stories that make the competition special now that replays are a thing of the past.

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Imagine the buzz in Tamworth this week, knowing that a once-in-a-lifetime visit to Tottenham Hotspur's gleaming new arena was on the horizon? A rich reward, in any of the previous 154 years of the world's oldest cup competition, for holding their vaunted Premier League opponents to a goalless draw over 90 minutes, before Spurs ran out 3-0 winners in extra-time.

The best part of £1 million in the pipeline too but, more importantly, memories that would last for generations.

In all, ten Non-League teams were denied replays in the FA Cup this season, the first since the FA controversially announced that replays were to be scrapped in April, without consulting any clubs or stakeholders outside of the Premier League. Weston-Super-Mare, Maidenhead United, Southend United, Forest Green Rovers, Guiseley, Boreham Wood, Kettering Town (twice), Oldham Athletic, Harborough Town, Tamworth (twice).

Only two-Kettering, who beat Northampton Town, and Tamworth, who beat Burton Albion on penalties, progressed.

The only other teams even to take their ties past extra-time to penalties were Guiseley, who lost to Stevenage, and Boreham Wood, who lost to Leyton Orient.

And so the idea that scrapping replays would give lower-ranked teams a better chance of going through has been shown up for exactly what it was: absolute nonsense.

Tamworth tugged at the heartstrings the hardest, but there were other heartbreakers in amongst those ties, too.

Weston-super-Mare, of National League South, drew 1-1 with their storied neighbours Bristol Rovers at The Mem, but were denied the chance to host the League One side for the first time in a competitive game, then conceded twice in extra-time.