One of the more lamentable pieces of news to emerge from the United camp during those football vacuum summer months was that the F.A. had decided the Pilgrims should start their 88-89 F.A. Cup campaign right from the beginning. Making professional outfits in the Conference start at this stage is akin to putting selected First Division clubs into the hat for the Fourth qualifying draw.

Strangely the F.A. seem to favour extremes, perhaps hoping that like a pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other you somehow achieve balance. If there is no place for you in the 4th Qualifying Round, then you are not fitted into the 3rd Rnd as you might well expect - nor the second round either, in fact you go right back to the first square on the board. This means joining the council pitch brigade - remember that infamous visit to Ely City once where a local was walking about with Ely City F.C. Bad Boy printed on the back of his jacket (no doubt after fifteen years of state education too).

Of course the obvious knock-on effect from this is that many Saturdays are taken up with the additional Cup duties, which in turn leads to a build up of surplus League games, and makes staging a challenge for the League even harder with hastily rearranged end of season matches on worn out pitches with extra injury and suspension worries.

For the 1986-87 season the F.A. got uncharacteristically wise and exempted all Conference clubs to the first round of the Trophy. Something similar must be done for the F.A. Cup - quite simply, now is the time to exempt the- clubs from the country's premier and only national non-league division, especially when it is remembered the time-honoured strugglers of Rochdale, Hartlepool and Halifax, amongst others, always have a reserved place in the first round proper. They only appear 2 rounds behind the 1st Divisions clubs, we come in 4 rounds behind the 4th Division. Are the F.A. honestly saying that the difference between Conference and 4th Division is twice as much as that between 4th and 1st Division?

Take a glance at the GMVC clubs' records in our country's premier knockout competition - thankfully saved recently from the prostitution of sponsorship. Macclesfield Town suffered a similar fate as Boston last term in having to start in the 1st Round, in spite of being NPL League Cup & President Cup triple champions; however, they overcame Carlisle 4-2 in last season's first round, and then went on to humiliate Rotherham 4-0; Chorley easily dispensed of Wolves 3-0 the season before, and if you want a complete list of League clubs being beaten by Conference clubs In the last five years, this page is not big enough.

Telford single-handedly beat four in 84-85 on their way to a 5th Round appearance, Altrincham knocked out a 1st Division side on their own ground a year later. Mercifully this has at least stopped the press's patronising David and Goliath type F.A. Cup giant killing stories. Quite simply, now is the time for automatic 4th Qualifying Round exemption for all Conference clubs.