POOR old Manchester United are not the only big club to have gone for a Burton in the FA Cup.

Peter Martini, while trying not to laugh at United's 0-0 humiliation,

gives his list of top five FA Cup shocks (in a way which evades all the times his beloved Manchester City have crashed out to the likes of Halifax, Brentford and Oldham).

WITH many of us still coming to terms with the incredible weekend of FA Cup action (yes, Man City really did avoid going out to Scunthorpe), we figured this week's High 5s column had to be about almighty cup shocks.

And in honour of Burton, Nuneaton and Tamworth - who all held esteemed Premiership clubs (and in Tamworth's case, Stoke) to draws this weekend - we've narrowed the parameters so this top five list involves non-League sides.

One such game is believed to have first spawned the term 'giant-killer'.

Back in the days before colour was invented, League champions Newcastle (who still play in black and white to remind themselves of happier times) hosted Crystal Palace in a first round tie at St James's Park.

It was 1907, Newcastle were undefeated at home for a year, Palace were second from bottom of the Southern League and the pundits were predicting a record score - well, they would have done if pundits existed in those days.

Both teams had strikes ruled out before Palace's Horace Astley scored the only goal of the game five minutes before the interval. Such was the magnitude of this surprise that it set the benchmark for upsets until the cup shock hey-day of the 1970s, when Newcastle were to make a re-appearance. More of that later.

Next up are a club whose cup conquests hit a high in 1989 when the Crazy Gang beat all-conquering Liverpool in the final.

Just 14 years earlier, Wimbledon were still in the Southern League but gave a sign of things to come - becoming the first non-League club to win at a top flight ground for more than 50 years - when they beat in-form Division One side Burnley 1-0 in the third round thanks to a Mick Mahon goal and the performance of his life from goalkeeper Dickie Guy.

Against champions Leeds in the next round, another inspired display from Guy, who saved a Peter Lorimer penalty, earned his side a replay, which they only lost thanks to an own goal from Dave Bassett - the man who went on guide them to their 1989 Wembley win.

Three years earlier, Division One side Birmingham hosted the Alliance Premier League's Altrincham in a third round tie which the Blues hoped would reignite their poor season.

It didn't. The Cheshiremen won 2-1 and Birmingham went on to be relegated.

Altrincham had taken seven League scalps in ten years, so, as banana skins go, it was pretty slippy, but that should not undermine the enormity of the occasion, especially for Blues player Robert Hopkins.

He equalised Ronnie Ellis' opener but then his back pass caught the wind and sailed over a bemused David Seaman (not the last time a ball was to sail over a bemused David Seaman). The Robins fell 2-0 to York City in the next round.

Three years later, poor Coventry were humbled in even worse circumstances - in front of TV cameras - at Conference minnows Sutton.

Left-back Tony Rains' opener for Sutton was cancelled out by Wales international David Phillips, but Matthew Hanlan forced home a cross to put the hosts ahead again on the hour-mark.

His goal might have been marred by an awful celebration, but this did not deter Sutton from going wild again after successfully holding out for the longest half-hour of their lives.

But even that occasion must take second billing to the third round tie that is more synonymous with the FA Cup than the FA Cup itself. Hereford v Newcastle, 1975.

Non-League Hereford - managed by former York City striker Colin Addison - somehow drew at St James's to force a twice-postponed replay on a mud-bog pitch at a ramshackle old Edgar Street ground. Still, First Division Newcastle led 1-0 and, with Hereford players falling down with cramp all over the place, the game looked over.

But then (altogether now)... "Radford... now Tudor's gone down for Newcastle... Radford again. Oh, what a goal. Etc."

Ronnie Radford's late 35-yard blockbuster sparked a pitch invasion as legendary as the goal itself. Then in extra time Ricky "George the Substitute" George scored a winner that sparked an even bigger stampede. Never have so many parkas been seen in any one place at any one time.

Pure FA Cup magic.

Updated: 09:23 Tuesday, January 10, 2006