Even the FA Cup has lost its magic

Wolves blogger Tim Spiers believes the latest FA Cup assignment at Doncaster could represent little more than a distraction from the Premier League survival fight.

Magic of the cup, anyone?

Or perhaps you'd prefer romance of the cup, acts of giant killing, David versus Golliath, the world's best cup competition, potential banana skins or form book out of the window?

If the FA Cup is nothing else, it's a mecca for purveyors of cliche-ridden drivel.

Once a year we're subjected to misty-eyed nostalgia glorifying the famous old cup's most celebrated players - Ronnie Radford, Ricky Villa, Jim Montgomery, Mickey Thomas et al.

Or those classic games etched in cup folklore - Wimbledon 1 Liverpool 0, Sutton 2 Coventry 1, Blackpool 4 Bolton 3 and, of course, Albion 2 Woking 4.

Forgive me for leaving my rose-tinted glasses in the FA's posh velvet bag of balls, probably made from a recycled concoction of Gary Mabbutt's left kneecap, Roy Essandoh's upturned collar and the tears of John Duncan.

But the cup, great though it once was, just doesn't fit in with the money-obsessed culture of English football in 2010.

Given the option of a 1-0 win over Doncaster this Saturday or a battling goalless draw at Manchester City in the Premier League a week later, how many Wolves fans would plump for the latter?

I suspect Mick McCarthy would take the point at Eastlands all day long.

A long cup run of four or five games, with a couple of energy-sapping replays throw in for good measure, isn't conducive for a relegation dogfight.

It's a shame because the cup has given us some wonderful memories over the years but, this season, the competition would more than likely prove to be a distraction if we made it through to the later rounds.

When we were a perennial second-tier outfit there was still a sprinkling of that metaphorical romance in the air, in particular when Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle, both respected Premier League sides at the time, were defeated at Molineux.

For excitement and drama, the Wednesday game was on a par with anything seen at Molineux since the stadium was redeveloped in the early 1990s.

My memory of the night is a bit fuzzy but one moment which will live with me forever is Paul Jones saving Chris Waddle's penalty, followed by the loudest racket you could ever wish to hear from 26,000 people.

Jones' goal kicks may have been less likely to get off the ground than an idea for an Ashley Cole School of Respect, Manners and Dignity on the Football Field, but he had a happy knack of saving penalties.

It was Waddle's first penalty since the World Cup in 1990 and Jones had a gut instinct the man responsible for 50 per cent of Diamond Lights - the other has been erased from my brain - would shoot in the opposite direction to that infamous Turin penalty.

Don Goodman then lashed home the winner to complete what was an astounding turnaround in the shoot-out, coming back as we did from 3-0 down to win 4-3.

We had a pretty decent cup pedigree throughout the 1990s, taking a few Premier League scalps along the way including Ipswich, Leicester, Wimbledon and Leeds, while pushing Tottenham, Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Arsenal very close indeed.

One of two encounters with the Gunners came, of course, in the 1998 semi-final at Villa Park.

For me the occasion is worth recalling more for the pre-match build-up that the game itself, with Sir Jack Hayward waving dozens of coaches goodbye from Molineux before thousands of us greeted the players outside the ground.

We gave Arsenal, who won the double that year, a run for their money but came up agonisingly short.

I don't know about you but seeing legends Steve Bull, Robbie Keane and Mike Stowell sat on the bench that day, with Steve Claridge somehow earning a place up front, still rankles.

In the past few years, a cup run has slipped further down the list of priorities for most clubs in the top two divisions, with even Championship managers now regularly fielding reserve line-ups.

In the Premier League, unless you're safely secured in mid-table with no European aspirations or relegation worries, the cup is, if anything, a nuisance.

This Saturday's game at the curiously-named Keepmoat Stadium is unlikely to be anything other than a footnote in our 2010-11 season, but it's still one we should be looking to win, if just to string a run together of – brace yourselves – two consecutive victories.

McCarthy will be tempted to rest the heroes of Wednesday night's epic triumph over Chelsea, but I'd like to see him keep as many of them in the team as possible.

Matt Jarvis looks like he could do with a rest but, if everyone else is fresh enough to play, I see no reason why they should have a day off.

The back four in particular need to continue playing together if they're to form the bonds and understanding that only regular matches can bring.

Steven Fletcher and Stephen Hunt need game time to keep their fitness levels up, as does Kevin Doyle.

Win, lose or draw it's important to breed continuity, as Christophe Berra pointed out this week so, while the result won't be season defining, it's a good opportunity to keep morale high ahead the trip to Manchester.

One of my lifelong ambitions is to watch Wolves in a Wembley cup final and if we could somehow juggle the two competitions in the coming months, with an easy home draw here and there, then why not go for it?

But, if push comes to shove and one needs prioritising over the other, the Premier League it has to be.

Besides, we have just beaten Chelsea and Liverpool in the space of a week and dumped Villa into the relegation zone in the process.

Now that's what I call magic!