MAGIC OF THE CUP IS THE PERFECT ANTIDOTE TO TOP-FLIGHT BILE

THERE were unexpected treasures all over the place, like Ed Balls being cross-examined by BT Sport’s Jake Humphrey on Norwich City’s transfer plans and managing to divulge that all the money’s been spent. Alan Shearer also offered a memorable, unprintable riposte on Twitter on Friday night to those Liverpool fans ‘currently hurling personal abuse at me, my wife and kids because I happen to disagree with your opinion about the penalty decision’. But above all, this was the weekend which restored us to football the way it used to be. If there was more coverage of this kind, the sport’s broadcasters may stem the tide of viewers switching off in droves. The Premier League soundtrack, with its usual managerial bile, raged away in the background. Jose Mourinho called Antonio Conte a match-fixer. Conte called Mourinho a little man. What sophistication they have brought to our shores. Yet like an exhilarating breath of fresh Fylde coast air, the BBC delivered us on third-round weekend to the real world of Fleetwood. Football Focus’s build-up to the local team’s tie with Leicester City provided the kaleidoscope of colour which used to belong to those long hours leading into the FA Cup final itself. The Cod Heads, as they call themselves, let the world into their club. So we witnessed manager Uwe Rosler, perched in his dugout with Dan Walker, explaining why selling players is a primary aim. We received director of football Gretar Steinsson’s thoughts on his goalkeeper winning a year’s supply of pizza. We heard fans tell the former England defender Alex Scott — excellent in her first live broadcast appearance — that defeat for Blackpool was the afternoon’s top priority. Commentator Jonathan Pearce

offered a brief valediction to Ted Lowry, the tea boy who rose to vice-chairman and who the club are mourning. It was a million miles from Manchester United, consigned to BBC local radio for once. There were setbacks. Fleetwood’s game delivered neither goals nor Jamie Vardy, who was injured. This put a spoke in the programme editor’s plans, since the BBC had billed the striker’s return to the club which launched him as the ‘Vardy derby’ and had prepared one of those slick goals sequences. They ran the sequence anyway, though Vardy couldn’t bring himself to offer up just a couple of minutes of his time to join the programme. Vardy was ‘genuinely annoyed’ about his groin injury so wouldn’t be talking, explained Walker. On the opposite side of the country, at Carrow Road a few hours later, BT Sport mined the same rich seam, with a broadcast which entailed Humphrey, a Norwich fan, marching through the back corridors to meet interviewees strewn in his path. Chairman Balls trying to spin Norwich ‘not needing to raise funds in this window’ as a reason for good cheer was compelling. BT Sport’s offer of virtual reality, 360-degree replays of the goals, or some such, didn’t work so well in the goalless draw. But this was not so far behind the BBC’s level. So, now we return to the swagger and spite of football’s main theatre. The glimpse of something better lends support to an idea which would enhance hugely an FA Cup which has been searching for identity for years: guarantee every team from League One and below a home tie if they draw a top-flight team. There’s a world of colour and imagination and ambition out there, if we only knock the door and step in.