Radford again? You betcha. It’s nearly time for our annual festival of misty-eyed nostalgia – the third round of the FA Cup. This season it should be even more evocative than usual: it’s the 50th anniversary of the FA Cup’s most celebrated moment, Ronnie Radford’s astonishing equaliser for non-league Hereford against first division Newcastle.
The FA Cup third round will never be as magical as it once was, football has changed too much, but it’s still medically proven to be good for the soul. And that’s just the draw. The actual football, which is usually pretty good as well, takes place between Friday 7 and Monday 10 January.
There are five non-league teams in tonight’s draw, though only four will play in the third round: Kidderminster, Chesterfield’s toenail munchers, Yeovil and either Boreham Wood or St Albans. They meet at Meadow Park tonight in the last second-round tie.
The third round of the cup is about romance, sure, but it would be nothing without cold, hard, raw, baw data. Below are the relevant numbers for tonight’s draw, which is scheduled to start at 7pm, and you can probably add your own punchline to that last bit.
1. AFC Bournemouth
2. Arsenal
3. Aston Villa
4. Barnsley
5. Birmingham City
6. Blackburn Rovers
7. Blackpool
8. Brentford
9. Brighton & Hove Albion
10. Bristol City
11. Burnley
12. Cardiff City
13. Chelsea
14. Coventry City
15. Crystal Palace
16. Derby County
17. Everton
18. Fulham
19. Huddersfield Town
20. Hull City
21. Leeds United
22. Leicester City
23. Liverpool
24. Luton Town
25. Manchester City
26. Manchester United
27. Middlesbrough
28. Millwall
29. Newcastle United
30. Norwich City
31. Nottingham Forest
32. Peterborough United
33. Preston North End
34. Queens Park Rangers
35. Reading
36. Sheffield United
37. Southampton
38. Stoke City
39. Swansea City
40. Tottenham Hotspur
41. Watford
42. West Bromwich Albion
43. West Ham United
44. Wolverhampton Wanderers
45. Yeovil Town
46. Bristol Rovers
47. Port Vale
48. Morecambe
49. Hartlepool United
50. AFC Wimbledon
51. Colchester United or Wigan Athletic
52. Leyton Orient
53. Cambridge United
54. Mansfield Town
55. Swindon Town
56. Rotherham United
57. Charlton Athletic
58. Boreham Wood or St Albans City
59. Kidderminster Harriers or FC Halifax Town
60. Shrewsbury Town
61. Salford City or Chesterfield
62. Rochdale or Plymouth Argyle
63. Ipswich Town or Barrow
64. Harrogate Town
