The wonders of TV planners

SO ITV are screening Villa's third round clash at Stockport or Gillingham on a Sunday afternoon at 1.25pm.

I cannot for the life of me think why. Or am I just narked at the loss of a Saturday afternoon out and about in the most exciting of all footballing weekends.

Do ITV forsee a giant-killing of Doncaster proportions? Surely not?

Or are the planners paid by the mile in expecting the Gills to face Villa and therefore rake in from a round trip of 313 miles (for those of you planning the trip north, it is 170 to Greater Manchester).

Anyway, I pity the seasoned travellers who now have to set their alarm clocks and miss a Sunday roast.

The winners, as always, are the armchair fans.

But even a cursory glance at the third round ties surely throws up some more attractive propositions- games which might just take the eye of the viewer from the Eastenders omnibus.

The first four ties all looked intriguing: Tottenham Hotspur v Wigan Athletic, Portsmouth v Bristol City, Sheffield Wednesday v Fulham and the best of the lot: Blues v Wolves.

Then there's Hull v Newcastle, Man City v Forest or how about Sunderland v Bolton?

And yet ITV in their wisdom have plumped for Villa at Edgely Park, which perhaps says something of the pull of the club under Martin O'Neill.

Still it will be an historic encounter. Villa have only played one competitive match at Stockport- back in 1938. Their only clash in the FA Cup came 100 years ago in 1908.

In the unlikely event that Gillingham, from the Second Division, upset the odds with a victory at First Division Stockport in their replay in Manchester then Villa will travel to that part of Kent next month for only the second time- the sides having met in the 1970/71 season in the old Division Three.

They were dark days when Villa were just about recovering from having been on their knees as a football club.

By the time they enter the FA Cup this time around Martin O'Neill is likely to have embarked on another round of transfer spending to not just leave the days of the late 60s and early 70s, behind but take Villa from any financial level they have enjoyed since at least the late 1990s and probably well before.