Come about 2.20pm last Saturday what a relief it was to hear Adrian Chiles in the BBC studio at Tamworth say words to the effect 'why on earth did we actually sit here expecting an upset?'.

Come about 2.20pm last Saturday what a relief it was to hear Adrian Chiles in the BBC studio at Tamworth say words to the effect 'why on earth did we actually sit here expecting an upset?'.

And then I do believe Iain Dowie uttered the words 'professional' and 'clinical' about our team. Being out of work has obviously got to the man.

If we are all brutally honest the first twenty or so minutes were hairier than your average gorilla's back and we could have been at least two down.

Mind you, the pitch was as sticky as one of Delia's toffee puddings and appeared to have enough lumps to qualify as 'Molehill Central', but our commentator friends were adamant that we were never going to use that as an excuse if the worst came to the worst. (Glad we didn't have to find out if I'm honest!)

Anyway, after seeming to learn how to navigate the humps and hummocks and keep rain-soaked hair out of the eyes we seemed able to forget where we had come from (a building-site type Portakabin no less) and settled to the task.

From that point on it was as if we were skating on top of smooth water as we executed our plan (I'm sure from where I sat it looked as if there was one) and kept the gallant minnows at bay.

Perhaps 4-1 was a tad harsh on them overall but I'd like to think that class shone through in the end, and so we find ourselves in rather unusual territory: a place in the fourth round draw…and all without having to go to a replay. And so it's into the fourth round and off to the seaside to see the lights, kiss-me-quick hats and the delights of Blackpool on a cold late-January day.

No, I shall not be tempted to say anything about our prospects as all roads out of East Anglia are littered with banana skins - don't we know it, but at times like this I really can't help wishing that the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Porto, Marseilles and AEK Athens were extended the F.A.'s bony hand of friendship and allowed to compete in the F.A. Cup as honorary guests just on the off chance that we might get drawn away in the sunshine somewhere.

There simply comes a point when you've seen all the grey skies in the world and just long to gaze upon that big yellow thing in the sky.

Leaving aside City for the moment, from time-to-time the newspapers are full of articles about falling standards in our schools and the knock-on effects in colleges and universities, etc.

Unless you've been in any or all of these institutions fairly recently, or had close contact with them, it is difficult to comment with any authority I feel.

That said, I think that Sky and Eurosport need to have a quiet word in the odd ear or two after a couple of classic howlers I saw over the past weekend.

Sky were keen to give anyone who would watch the amazing news that Highland League side Deveronvale had beaten Scottish Football League side Elgin 5-4 in the Scottish Cup, but said that a hat-trick by Elgin's Martin Johnson “was in vein”.

I guess that means he will be out injured for at least a few weeks until it's all out of his system. Poor chap.

Eurosport, on the other hand, were happily asking its viewers about British number one tennis player Andy Murray as regards the forthcoming season. “How do you think Murray will fair?”, they asked. “Not too well until he changes his tousled auburn locks to blonde and behaves himself” I thought.

Nasty thing having a dose of ' incorrect homophones'. My suggested cure? Swallow a thesaurus and digest well…that should do it! If not, maybe Sky or Eurosport would like to get in touch and offer me a job…now that would see one of my two New Year's Resolutions sorted.

City, it's up to you to the sort the other, so I don't have to learn to be happier when we don't win.