Bristol Rovers London 8 - 2 Tooting & Mitcham

My head hurts. Dare i ask?

If I was being overly picky, would it be so hard for them all to have the same kit on?

If I was being overly picky, would it be so hard for them all to have the same kit on?

That’s right Halifax, remember Tooting and Mitcham from the late 50s.
They reached the FA Cup third round, losing in a replay to Nottingham Forest, the eventual winners.
The match at Tooting was played on an icy pitch, and they were 2-0 up, then pegged back by Forest.
Terry Bly was a cult hero centre forward for Norwich, then a Division 3 side, whose FA Cup exploits captured the nation’s attention in 1959.
They knocked out Manchester United, Tottenham and others: reaching the semi finals, an incredible achievement in those days.
I seem to remember they had a lot of replay wins, it was in the days when the FA Cup meant something, and the elite hadn’t started the trend of playing below strength sides,
Present day administrators, clubs and most big club fans, wouldn’t understand the thrill of bringing back a big side to a lower league ground, for a mid week, winter replay, often on an icy pitch, with an expectant, best of the season crowd.
No live TV either: which added to the atmosphere, seldom any highlights on TV either, so you had to be there to experience it.
Those times will obviously never come back, but the scrapping of FA Cup replays, long being called for by the elite,is another factor that irritates me about modern football.
Just looked up Terry Bly on Wikipedia, he also played for Peterborough a couple of years later, scored 54 goals in one season, 81 goals in 88 appearances!

Many thanks for filling in the gaps Newbie, beginning to think i was alone in my memories! So ther was no direct link twixt Bly and T&M just that they were in the news around the same time, not a bad striker was he! I well remember those early round cup games played in all sorts of conditions such a shame to see it being devalued by the upper echelons of the game but when you listen to players and officials from local teams playing in the Qualifying rounds it is evident that there passion and dreams of the competition are still as passionate as ever. Remember watching Forest beat Luton in that cup final on our 17 "tv!, think there was ,what was then , the annual broken bone, no subs allowed of course. The demise of cup replays is indeed another step in the cups ever decreasing importance to the elite ,i well remember my older brothers queuing at Eastville for the Newcastle replay in the early 50s, replays which incidentally took place the following Tues or Weds, so exiting and magical , magic which is totally lost on the powers that be, happy days!!!