ON THIS DAY

& 2006 The hope of any fan of a non-league club is to see their club get to the First Round of the FA Cup and then draw a League side. The real dream though is to get to the Third Round and then draw one of the giants of the game. Well, that’s what two non-league sides did in the mid 2000’s. On Saturday January 8th 2005 Exeter City – then a Conference side – were up against Manchester United at Old Trafford in front of 67,551 fans – and they drew 0-0 with the FA Cup holders. The Grecians were beaten 2-0 in the replay in Exeter. In the Third Round a year later – Sunday 8th January 2006 – it was the turn of Conference side Burton Albion to have that dream fixture v Manchester United at their Pirelli Stadium home. That was another 0-0 draw and although Burton were beaten 5-0 in the replay they played in front of 53,564 at Old Trafford. Both Burton and Exeter were playing in the Football League a few years later but I bet fans of both clubs will never forget those FA Cup matches against Manchester United!

I think that it would be fair to say that referees never always get it right but back in 2000 Ref Rob Harris got it very wrong. On Saturday January 8th 2000 a Fourth Round FA Cup tie between Tranmere Rovers and Sunderland at Prenton Park had a lively last few seconds. Tranmere's Clint Hall was sent off in injury time for a second bookable offence but during the ensuing on-pitch confrontation a Tranmere sub, Stephen Frail, was sent on unnoticed by the officials. Until the error was noticed - resulting in another confrontation - Tranmere played with a full team, much to the displeasure of Sunderland who lost the match 1-0. Sunderland manager Peter Reid said 'I t was like Billy Smart's circus out there. I don't like talking about officials instead of football - but someone has made a major error .' The Wearsiders lost an appeal to have the match replayed but for the first time match officials were brought before an FA Commission to examine their actions. Ref Harris, assistant ref Tony Green and fourth official David Unsworth were all said to have 'l ess than proficiently applied the laws of the game ' with Harris being given a ban as a result.

Such is the turnover of managers it is rarely a shock when a manager leaves a club but there was widespread and genuine shock on Tyneside when Kevin Keegan resigned as Newcastle United manager on this day in 1997. Former Newcastle player Keegan had taken up his first managerial post at St James’ Park in 1992 when the club was in great danger of suffering relegation to the third tier. But at the start of 1997 his Newcastle side were fourth in the Premier League, had just beaten Tottenham 7-1 in the League and had recorded a 5-0 victory over Manchester United earlier in the season. In their playing ranks they had Alan Shearer who Newcastle had bought six months earlier for a world record £15m fee, and he was scoring regularly. The club and their fans were on a high but Kevin Keegan believed he had taken the club as far as he could, and so resigned.