The ‘magic’ of the FA Cup might be a cliche – but it still has some clout

Last weekend’s tie between Marine and Spurs was a reminder of what makes the competition so special, writes Lawrence Ostlere

Marine’s players after their third-round game (Getty)

I got a phone call from my mum today. After the usual exchange of how are yous (mum: blocked drainpipe, sniffle. Me: bathroom falling into the kitchen, arm rash) she asked if I’d watched the match. 

This caught me off guard; my mum doesn’t care at all for football and only watches when England are playing in the World Cup, when she says things like “well, they’ve blown it now” before tutting and walking out the room.

But evidently this weekend my mum had been charmed by the magic of the FA Cup. The game she was referring to was eighth-tier Marine taking on the Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur, the greatest ever gulf at this stage of the old competition, which she had either sat down voluntarily to watch or, more plausibly now I think about it, had found herself involuntarily gripped by as she passed through the living room.