Cup memories that never fade

KOREY Smith was only six years old when he formed part of the fabric of the sort of underdog tale that underpins the enduring romance of the FA Cup.

Mark Smith, the uncle of the Athletic captain, was busy combining his day job as a foundry supervisor in Hitchin with duties as a non-league defensive mainstay at Stevenage Borough when Newcastle United were drawn to face them at Broadhall Way in the fourth round in 1998.

Smith, part of a Boro line-up assembled for £30,000, marked £15million striker Alan Shearer.

He did such a good job that an unlikely replay was forced thanks to a 1-1 draw in front of a national television audience.

With eyes on stalks, excited nephew Korey travelled to St James’s Park and watched further heroics.

One goal-line scissor-kick ‘clearance’ from uncle Mark off a Shearer effort wrote itself, even though it was given as a goal, into family, Stevenage and FA Cup folklore. Newcastle won the replay 2-1.

The memories of those superb occasions have stuck with Athletic’s captain.

He knows how much energy and emotion the FA Cup can stir up, and exactly how powerful the underdog can suddenly become.

Though Athletic are second-favourites to win tonight’s first-round replay against a Wolves club whose player budget still benefits from massive parachute payments from the Premier League, Smith will aim to be part of another table-turning knock-out escapade at Molineux, with a second-round date at home to Mansfield of Sky Bet League Two awaiting the victors.

“The FA Cup is a massive thing for me,” said Smith (pictured), who has been in excellent form in midfield after signing a two-year deal in the summer.

“I got to travel with my uncle on the team coach up to Newcastle. It was just an amazing experience.

“BBC news came round to my nan’s house to film and on a personal level, it was a big thing for the family.

“For the smaller clubs, this tournament means a lot. It is massive and something I look forward to every year.”

League One front-runners Wolves, who are likely to field a line-up featuring up to five changes to that which drew 1-1 at Boundary Park two weeks ago, are not expecting a big crowd for tonight’s game which clashes with England’s friendly with Germany.

Two sections of Molineux — the whole of the Steve Bull Stand and the upper tier of the Stan Cullis Stand — will be closed for the night.

And the feeling is that the FA Cup is very much secondary in importance to the aim of winning promotion, a quest which brings with it a crunch home clash with Brentford on Saturday.

Wolves (probable, 4-4-2): Ikeme; Ebanks-Landell, Batth, Stearman, Elokobi; Ismail, Davis, McDonald, Golbourne; Cassidy, Sigurdarson. Subs: Ricketts, Foley, Evans, Edwards, Griffiths, Flatt, Price.