Do Lewes FC Think They Are Too Big For The FA Cup?

I was a season ticket holder at Selhurst Park for 15 years.

I swapped to Lewes FC 20 years ago, disillusioned by the diminishing integrity of the Premiership.

A classic example is the downgrading of the FA Cup by topflight teams, turning it from one of the highlights of the sporting calendar to an also ran in the name of gold (Sky)

On Saturday we drew at home to Three Bridges a division below us. We all accept poor results but not the team not giving a shit and they didn’t, until the end when we rallied and equalised.

No bigger incentive than knowing before the replay we faced former giantkillers Hereford at home in the next round. You’d have thought.

Off we trotted to Three Bridges for the replay and got dicked 4-0 in the most slated performance in at least a decade, fans are furious. The rallying app at home was simply left at home. Even the most reasonable supporters on social media are spitting feathers.

The FA Cup is still huge in non-league. It really is a big deal. I only went on Saturday, but the anecdotal evidence and anger from last night at not so much the result, a disgrace, but the performances and the management and players not caring and showing a total lack of any integrity and empathy with our ‘community’ of supporters and our beliefs and priorities. I have always argued we don’t really count under all the bollocks branding hyperbole from the club.

Since when did we climb so far up our backsides the FA Cup does not matter? Since when was a home tie Hereford and possibly over £15 to 20,000 in revenue not worth a fight? Lewes Women will eventually be suffocated by the growth of the women’s game and, so far, disinterested huge clubs investing heavily in their women’s teams as has begun. So I hope, as has been alluded to, people do not think we can afford to simply flounce out of the FA Cup. Because all of the huge revenue from the Lewes Women is not guaranteed in perpetuity. I believe we have a completely worrying ambivalent attitude at the helm of the club to finances suckered in by all of the attention and fuss around the club.

Of course, the club cannot debate or state that the cup does not matter. It is an unwritten rule. We can only make our minds up on that and I think, from the reaction,most of us have.

I always say a manager needs to be judged after 12 league games and of course in another six games time we could be top. So premature to question his tenure. But another couple of straight defeats on the back of this and confidence will begin to disappear. I still have very high hopes for this season under the current management but if we are below mid-table after 12 games someone else needs to be given the opportunity to move us into the next flight.

One thing is for sure Saturday is a huge game for the boss, a win and this will all blow over. We’ll just be a poorer club financially and for our FA Cup efforts and integrity.

Of course, the club can wash it’s hands of this result, who is to blame, the manager, players, direction of the club, the board? But I bet you anything the board were not all pressurising the manager for a result and stressing the importance of the cup. There was no mood music of excitement, to muse a wanky phrase. Because I believe some on the board see it as a distraction from obtaining promotion. Or maybe it is the board and the manager. Players? Certainly, some people don’t care at the club and they should go and ply their trade somewhere else. The manager may have been told his job is dependent on reaching the play offs? Either way there has been distinct lack of effort from persons the club to progress in the FA Cup, that is a disgrace.

For a club who have actioned a superb initiative to improve prize money for women and non-league teams it would come with a lot more bite if we bothered making an effort in the competition.