God bless Ray Clemence

By: Jim | December 1st, 2008

….for drawing ball 28 immediately following Trevor Brooking pulling out number 1. Argyle will go to Arsenal on January 3/4 (depending on telly/the police) in the third round of the FA Cup. It’s our biggest Cup draw for 22 years: in 1987 we were again drawn against Arsenal and were royally stuffed 6-1.

That day, 12,000 Green Army turned up at Highbury, and something of that order is likely in a month’s time. The ticket allocation is expected to be around 9,000 (15% of capacity), meaning that any Season Ticket holder wishing to go is likely to be able to. If you’re not an ST holder, however, your chances of picking up a ticket are slim – and non-existent if you don’t go to away matches. Last year Argyle prioritised Cup tickets as follows:

1) ST holders with 8 away stubs or more;
2) ST holders with 4-7 away stubs;
3) Remaining ST holders;
4) White members with stubs;
5) White members;
6) Pilgrim members with stubs;
7) Pilgrim members;
General sale.

Some people are talking optimistically about picking up tickets in the Arsenal end. They can forget that *right now. Arsenal tickets, despite the size of the stadium are like gold dust for almost *every match. My Gooner friend Danny, who sometimes comes to Home Park, is a low level Arsenal member and he tells me he has no chance of getting a ticket. Tickets go out on offer by email to their membership, once ST holders have taken up their allocation – he occasionally gets one for early Carling Cup fixtures or unglamorous away matches, but that’s it. It will not be possible for London-based (or anywhere else-based) Argyle fans to get a ticket direct from Arsenal – they simply never make it to general sale.

As far as any putative Cup run goes, realistically, of course, it’s about the day out and the money the club will make. But Arsenal have been wildly inconsistent this year, and there’s just the slimmest chance that a well organised and committed “Sturrock performance” could bring them back to ours. Equally, the Arsenal youth team destroyed Sheffield Utd 6-0 in the Carling Cup: Danny said ruefully yesterday that if Wenger decides to play the first team we might have a chance. In any event, it should make for some determined training and matchday performances in the coming weeks from players desperate to secure and cement their place on the Emirates bus.