Finally, the magic of the FA Cup has undeniably returned.

And that’s not just good news for all football fans, but for a handful of delighted punters as well.

It probably won’t be pleasing Town fans too much that Bradford City played a big part in restoring lustre to the great old competition, but the reality is that last Saturday’s results were exactly what the FA Cup needed.

For several years now, upsets have been tough to find but, suddenly, like London buses, lots of them all turned up at once.

Bradford’s win at Chelsea, particularly from 2-0 down, was nothing short of incredible, and then when you add in Tottenham’s loss and Southampton’s loss, there was a complete shake-up in the FA Cup betting.

What was even more amazing was that by Saturday night, Manchester United were 3-1 favourites to win the trophy – and anybody who watched them stuttering to get a draw at Cambridge United on Friday night will know how surprising that fact was.

Days like last Saturday are always great for bookmakers, because the majority of punters put their money down on all the favourites, expecting them to win as usual.

But you also get the wonderful stories of people who have gone for the outsiders and have been rewarded for their optimism.

At Skybet, we had someone place a £2 five-fold accumulator that included Bradford City and Middlesbrough and the bet paid out £24,000.

We also had someone place a £2 six-fold, also including Bradford and Boro, and they collected £36,000.

You love reading stories like that and, also, hearing of the customer who had a £2.50 accumulator riding on Bolton winning against Liverpool.

Had Bolton managed to win, he would have collected £189,000 for the £2.50, and you can imagine what a nightmare 90 minutes that would have been to sit through as it stood at 0-0!

But whoever the customer was made the decision to cash out and take a £15,500 profit.

With hindsight, what a wise decision that was.

There have been more fun and games this week, too, in the Capital One Cup, with Chelsea and Tottenham now set to meet in the final.

But the big talking point has been Diego Costa and his alleged stamps during their semi-final second-leg victory over Liverpool.

Before anybody starts jumping up and down in horror at what he has allegedly done, there was a wonderful Tweet from Tony Barrett at The Times which said this: “A basic football hypocracy: violence by your own players is tolerated and even admired; committed by an opponent it’s an outrage.”

How true that is for so many fans.

Certainly Liverpool fans who have spent the last three years defending Luis Suarez and all his many actions should probably hang fire before getting too irate over Diego Costa.

Diego Costa stamps on Emre Can's ankle during the Chelsea v Liverpool Capital One Cup semi-final