1980/81: Exeter's FA Cup run

Exeter City take on Nottingham Forest in the final match of the 2025 FA Cup fourth round, hoping to pull off a shock against the Premier League high flyers. With victories over Barnet, Chesterfield and Oxford United, Gary Caldwell's team have exceeded expectations in reaching the fourth round. But the current team has a lot more work to do if they want to match the achievements of the 1980/81 squad.

Promoted to Division Three in the 1976/77 season under Johnny Newman and then Bobby Saxton, Exeter consolidated their position over the next two campaigns. When Saxton made the move to Plymouth during in January 1979, new manager Brian Godfrey arrived with a solid platform to build on.

1989: The David Elleray experiment

When Amazon Prime footage emerged recently on Twitter of a referee officiating a French Ligue 1 fixture, the brief clip gave us all a fascinating insight into the role of match day officials. Communicating with colleagues, players and managers, while trying to make crucial decisions that could impact the course of a match and/or season, you wonder why people put themselves through this.

This is what referees really say to footballers during a game... 🗣️

A fascinating insight from Ligue 1! 👀🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/jfBcyhSe0g

— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) April 18, 2023

Undoubtedly there is a gap in the market for a documentary of this nature. A series following officials around at various levels of the game would be interesting and might make a few of us a feel a bit more sympathy towards these pilloried individuals. The job of a referee and assistant seems a thankless task.

There is a previous example of a referee walking out to the centre circle with a hidden microphone attached. A famous experiment carried out in February 1989 that certainly made an impression and opened a few eyes as to what it takes to try officiate a football match. David Elleray was about to take centre stage.

1984: Chelsea's Robert Isaac is stabbed

Sheffield United's Oli McBurnie recently made headlines when he was caught making obscene gestures during Swansea's visit to South Wales rivals Cardiff City. The former Swansea player was reminded of his responsibilities by both the FA and club manager Chris Wilder, and although his attendance did raise a few eyebrows, it was quite refreshing to see a football player with an obvious connection to one of the clubs he represented in the past.

Heavy security surrounding the South Wales derby meant that McBurnie and his fellow Swansea supporters would have been shipped in and out of the Welsh capital, reducing the chances of trouble between the rival sets of fans. The experience for McBurnie would have been a whole lot different in the distant past.

1982/83: FA Cup First Round shocks

A look back this week on some FA Cup shocks from the first round of the competition in 1982/83, including a couple of teams in financial dire straits having angst piled upon their misery, giant-killers adding to their growing reputations, and Bede McCaffrey writing his name into the history books of North Shields.