Camden New Journal - The Peoples Perch

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Camden New Journal - by RICHARD OSLEY and PAUL COWLING
Published: 13 March 2008

‘It was like a team of panto villains finally getting their just desserts’

HOW nice to see clubs like Portsmouth and West Bromwich Albion go so far in the FA Cup.
Fact: It’s the first time two little clubs will get to the final since Spurs played Forest in 1991. I just about remember it, Gazza got so over-excited he had to be stretchered off after about two seconds.
What makes this season’s semi-final line-up great was the way the smaller clubs got through – particularly brilliant Barnsley, who embarrassed Chelsea.
Never has the football world been so united than the collective laughter at John Terry’s face as he sliced a shot over the bar in the dying seconds and it dawned on him that his team was actually going to be knocked out by Barnsley. I’d rather put out a reserve line-up at Man United and get beaten that way.
It just goes to show Chelsea can spend £986 million on players and still be undone by Ade Akinbiyi’s cousin scoring his first goal since the ball bounced off his backside aged 14 in a school match.
We might never hear of Kayode Odejayi again but let’s all thank him. His goal was a win for football and a defeat for Chelsea’s cynical spending policy over the last few years. It was like a team of panto villains finally getting their just desserts.

OH, what a crazy FA Cup. First, Spurs and Arsenal lost at Man Utd, then Portsmouth (who beat Plymouth) won there. Then Barnsley beat Chelsea and became everyone’s second team.
So, now there are four rubbish teams left – Cardiff are especially rubbish.

I know what young Barnsley’s fans are going through now as they imagine winning the Cup, just as I did as a young man in the pin-striped jeans days of Bonnie Tyler.
On a sunny afternoon in 1984, plucky Plymouth played Watford, but were denied a Wembley final by George Reilly’s header at Villa Park.
But, for one Argyle fan (no, not me) it was too much, as he waited 20 years before biting the now-retired Reilly’s ear off on a Northants building site.
Barnsley deserve to dream, after beating Liverpool and Chelsea. And they’ve got every chance.
I did say I would cheer Portsmouth in Europe, and now it looks as if I will be doing it.
But, if Barnsley show their Yorkshire grit, and the Cup takes more twists and turns, you never know.

* Paul Cowling is a Plymouth Argyle fan who lives in Tufnell Park
• The New Journal is inviting readers to tackle Osley in The People’s Perch. Send your column and a photo to The Crow, 40 Camden Road, NW1 9DR or by email sports@thecnj.co.uk

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