[Lord Snooty]

March 1:

On this date in 2017, I'm sure we all remember, we played the replay of the FA Cup 5th round match against Man City at the Etihad. And for half an hour we were living the dream. A Harry Bunn strike had put us into the lead after 7 minutes, but then City started using their Premier League cheating skills and lo and behold, we were 5-1 down in no time at all.

And so we missed another chance to make it through to the last 8 of the Cup. It's now 50 years since we did it. Not long now until we get the chance to end that stat.

Back in the 20s and 30s, we had no bother getting through to the latter stages of the FA Cup and on this date in 1930, we had a quarter final match at Villa Park against Aston Villa. Did we win it? Of course we did. Billy Smith scored and Alex Jackson kept up his record of scoring in every round of the competition, as the mighty blue n whites won 2-1.

It's a trip to Old Trafford coming up next for the semi final. The opponent? Sheffield Wednesday on the 22nd of March. Bring it on......

Here's a picture of Villa Park in the 30s.

That's it for FA Cup games on this date, but there was another knockout match, which although against not so glamorous opposition as Aston Villa or Manchester City, it was nonetheless a great victory.

It was in the Autoglass Trophy in 1994 and was played at Edgeley Park against Stockport County. They were one of the top sides in the 3rd Division at the time and had a 6' 7" striker called Kevin Francis who had been a particularly tricky opponent and was instrumental in our 3-0 defeat at the same ground a fortnight earlier. Not sure, but I think he got all three.

Anyway, we won this one 1-0 with a goal from Iain Dunn after a mad scramble in the area if I remember correctly. This turned out to be a bit of a turning point in the season and we had now made it to the area final, just two games away from Wembley. The first leg of that final is in a week's time at Leeds Road against Carlisle United. Bring it on.......