Hopefully this year’s FA Cup third round draw will have gone some way to hauling the competition out of its current reported malaise.

Apparently the world’s oldest football knockout competition isn’t what it used to be.

While I must admit watching Blyth Spartans dump Hartlepool out in the second round seemed exciting enough for me, the evidence is that fewer of us are turning up to watch the battles on the road to Wembley.

While Town and their fans may have to wait until later rounds for their thriller tie – sadly facing fellow mid-table Championship outfit Reading really isn’t the stuff of dreams – there were enough eye-catching ties set for the weekend of January 3-6 next year.

Certainly Accrington and Yeovil will be playing out of their skins in next Tuesday’s second round replay at Huish Park to earn the chance to host Manchester United, and while Blyth perhaps did not quite get the glamour tie they hankered after, Birmingham will bring plenty of fans to Croft Park where the Spartans have a great chance of causing another upset.

However, the most interesting draws were the clutch of Wembley finals set to be re-run.

The draw started with holders Arsenal facing Hull City to relive their five-goal showdown at Wembley last May.

Cup shocks are revisited as AFC Wimbledon take on Liverpool hoping they can find a man to match Lawrie Sanchez and his 1988 match-winning heroics, while this time round Sunderland will not be the underdogs against Leeds United having stunned the nation in 1973 when the goalkeeping agility of Jim Montgomery and the goal-scoring feats of Ian Porterfield served up silverware for Wearside.

And to complete the quartet of final repeats Tottenham will take on Burnley who met in the 1962 final.

Spurs won 3-1, but the Clarets scorer on the day was Jimmy Robson, whose equaliser was the 100th goal scored in a Wembley final.

The last time I met Jimmy, who was a coach with Town under Mick Buxton, was at a friend’s wedding over the Pennines where another of the guests was ex- Huddersfield striker Wayne Allison – which meant that there was enough footballing nostalgia and anecdotes kicking around to keep all of us off the dancefloor for the entire evening.