YOU can’t please all of the people all of the time. Especially when it comes to the FA Cup, and even more so when it comes to some clubs banking a cheque for the best part of £70,000, and the others just left to enjoy their day.
But the fact that Grimsby’s first round tie with fierce local foes Scunthorpe hasn’t even made the cut for extended ITV highlights, let alone live coverage, is a bit of a head-scratcher.
It’s no guarded secret that these two don’t like each other, one of the bigger Non-League clubs are at home to their Football League opponents and there won’t be a spare seat on show. Three of the biggest television boxes ticked, but still nothing doing.
Money’s not the issue with this one. Sure, the Mariners could have done with the £67,500 live broadcast fee that lucky Shortwood United and Bishop’s Stortford will take home.
Even missing out on £6,750 to be one of the main games on the ITV Saturday evening show won’t frustrate the club’s fans overly. They just wanted the exposure the tie deserved.
Staines Town too may be ticked off, their derby date with League One Brentford will probably get about twenty seconds on the box.
Marcus Gayle, the Swans manager, suggests – probably slightly tongue-in-cheek – that the decision makers “must want to get away from the big local ones” with the all-Middlesex affair also not picked up.
Credit where it’s due, though. We may be still two rounds away from the obligatory selection of Manchester United’s banker home tie against a Premier League also-ran that was played three weeks before, but five of the selected six matches all involved Non-League clubs.
Wimbledon against Coventry was the only all-Football League pick, with Skrill North good starters Hednesford Town‘s home tie with Crawley, Carlisle United’s visit to South strugglers Boreham Wood and homeless Gloucester taking on Fleetwood all taking centre stage in the highlights show.
They’re all clubs that will put the money to good use, so the fact the TV companies haven’t gone ratings chasing at Wolves, Portsmouth and Sheffield United should be applauded.
It’s not an easy job selecting main matches. Here at The NLP on FA Cup weekends, we can hammer the phones and change our pages around after the final whistles to ensure we’re well on top of the big live stories and upsets. It’s not so easy in broadcasting.
When it comes to getting your picks right, the task of the TV boys is far more demanding than ours.
It’s just a pity only those that can tune into Middle Eastern TV station Al Jazeera will be able to sample the round’s best atmosphere by far in Cleethorpes.
SHOW OF LOYALTY IS TYPICAL OF MILLS
SHOW of hands. How many of you would turn down the opportunity to potentially treble your annual income, whilst working daily with over three times the budget you were?
In football, people have been known to scamper off with the lure of an extra £20 a week in their back pocket – players blinded by the prospect of being able to now stretch to the latest smart phone.
Forest Green Rovers chairman Dale Vince wanted Gateshead boss Gary Mills to lead his club into the Football League. Usually when people that stupidly rich want something, more often than not nature has a habit of taking its course.
They get their own way because, essentially, they have the ability to tell their targets to name their price. Mills, in the process of totally transforming a Heed side with an annual budget of around £500,000, was a good and sensible selection.
But the former York City manager had a problem. Not the area, a family man like Gary would struggle to find fault with Stroud, the Cotswolds landscape one of the Skrill Premier’s finer settings.
No, he was worried about the lasting effect jumping ship eight weeks into his 12-month rolling contract would have on his reputation.
This from a man that was unceremoniously dumped by York City less than a season after taking them back to where they really wanted to be.
After struggling to get back into the game, he privately must have questioned the loyalty within football. Especially with York currently inhabiting exactly the same position in the League Two table where he left them last March.
Despite keeping his counsel, Mills wouldn’t do to Gateshead what the Minstermen decision makers did to him. Even with the prospect of practically writing his own contract at the New Lawn.
And unless Rovers’ appointment turns out to be as good, I know which side I fancy more for the top five.
Totally agree with the writers comments regarding the Grimsby-Scunthorpe game, complete sell out (9000), both teams hate each other and the 2 towns are buzzing about this fixture. Should be a cracker……..ITV’s loss is Aljazeera’s gain!