THE spectre of humiliating defeat sent a shiver down my spine this week after the draw for the third round of the FA Cup.

One of three cracking encounters that pitched lowly opposition against top-flight clubs was Yeading from the Ryman Premier League being given a plum home tie against the might of Newcastle United.

Boy, did that bring it all back for me as I was in the Newcastle team that was sent crashing out of the same third round by lowly Hereford United in 1971. Talk about the magic of the FA Cup, it was tragic in our case. And it was made even worse for me as that proved to be the end of my hopes of a potential move to St James' Park.

What had happened was that I joined the Magpies on loan from Luton Town. It linked me up again with Malcolm Macdonald with whom I'd shared a productive partnership when we were forwards together at Luton.

Anyway when I came north Newcastle were struggling a bit at the foot of the top-flight. They hadn't won away.

I made a great start to my career in the black and white stripes. On my debut we won 3-2 at West Brom where Malcolm got two goals and I got the other. Then I bagged the winner at West Ham and we also prised a point from a visit to Huddersfield Town. Soon after, I got the 'flu and I was out of the team for a while, including missing the first third round tie in which Hereford drew with Newcastle at St James' Park.

I was back in for the replay and because it was postponed several times due to bad weather we already knew who we would be playing against in the next round - West Ham. But as everyone knows it never worked out that way.

With all the bad weather Hereford's pitch at Edgar Street was like a mud-bath. However, we went 1-0 up with me flying down the right wing and crossing for Malcolm to head in at the back stick. I thought we were on our way. But bosh, bosh Ronnie Radford hits that cracking goal that everyone's surely seen on Match Of The Day and soon after Ricky George scored a second goal. 2-1 and we were out. It was horrible.

And us going out of the FA Cup and losing the potential tie against West Ham killed my hopes of a permanent move. The then manager Joe Harvey told me that had we got through to play the Hammers he'd have been able to afford to buy me. But he couldn't so that was that. It was a sickener as I would have loved to have stayed up north and played even longer with Newcastle.

It just shows how the FA Cup can work its magic and Yeading now must be thinking of just what they might be able to do when they entertain Newcastle at The Warren. I was there last year with Swindon. It's a massive pitch, but there are only small dressing-rooms and you have to go through a cage-like thing to get to the pitch. It will be something different for the Newcastle lads.

Then, there was the other two ties that send Exeter to Manchester United and Scunthorpe to Chelsea. Just think what it will mean to those two clubs to play at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge. The money they get will keep them in business for at least the rest of the season.

No-one in their right mind will say that Yeading will beat Newcastle, or Exeter will topple Man U, or Scunny will do the business over Chelsea. But you just never know.

I've sampled the extremes of both. There was that day at Hereford and also a tie at Stoke when we got beat by Blyth Spartans. And on the other hand I remember being at York City when we beat mighty Arsenal with Keith Houchen's penalty and when we drew twice with Liverpool at Bootham Crescent before going on to replays at Anfield. That's the magic of the FA Cup, especially on third round day.

Updated: 10:18 Thursday, December 09, 2004