JPT: Cheltenham v Torquay Utd 30 August 2011

You don't mind when the other team is too good but when mistakes are being made which lead to goals being conceded it is incredibly frustrating and I suspect that the Ellis / Saah experiment will now be quietly dropped with the question remaining as to who will partner Robbo?

The competition started in the early 1980s with Wembley finals coming on the scene in the mid 1980s. It’s always been “low key” in the early stages and, if you look back twenty-odd years, you’ll see pretty poor crowds in the first few rounds with plenty of younger and fringe players being “blooded”. It’s never really had a “Golden Age” outside of the final.

The major difference is that the lure of Wembley was enormous back in the 1980s when the only professional sides who appeared there were the major cup finalists. This started to change when the play-off finals went to Wembley in 1990 (a year after our Sherpa Van final against Bolton). Also of course, as soon as a club had played at Wembley once, the novelty started to wear off. We quickly saw this through the difference between our first visit (against Bolton) and our second for the Blackpool play-off two years afterwards. Friday night or not, the interest was always going to be smaller the second time even though it was a more important game.

The effect on the JPT is that it now “burns more slowly” than it once did. There was a time when interest picked up around the stage of the final-sixteen/ last-eight with the national semi-finals (area finals) being massive occasions. Now the crowds remain poor for longer with even the two-legged last-four games not being what they were.

We could have done with out playing th PissPot Trophy as now we have a doubt over a strikers fitness, either that or just use the game as a friendly and blood youngsters and get non-regulars game time!