The Magic of the F.A Cup. Or not.

They always go on about the magic of the cup. However, i dont think ive ever seen a Non-League, even a L1 or L2 team do anything in this competition. Obviously it's unlikely but with recents results such as Leeds and even Notts County and Forest Green playing for a place in the 4th round. I just think not enough lower league teams progress realisticly. As you will all agree, theres nothing better than taking a lower league team on FM than having a cup run and beating a higher division team.

I had Palace beat Liverpool at Anfield in the 4th round on mine before going out to Man City iirc in the 5th round. And that was season 1 and Palace were very low down in the CCC.

Not sure about this version, but it was perfectly fine in FM2009...

In fact I think Ipswich won it in 2011, still in the Championship.

Come to think of it, I've seen Championship sides upto the Semis a few times in FM2010...

Agreed. Five seasons in, in one game. In that time only three non-league teams have reached the third round (on average 0.6 teams a season). IRL there's usually a minimum of two, sometimes four (like this year) or even five or six.

Shocks are few and far between. There does seem to be a few in the League Cup as the big teams all play weaker sides, but I notice this tends to stop after a few seasons. But in the FA Cup, there's barely any teams that shock teams, even just in the division above. In the JPT, League 2 teams often "shock" the L1 teams (often due to taking it more seriously), but in this game this is not the case. Rarely do the L2 teams beat L1 teams and never has one made the Final (whereas IRL a L2 team has won it for the past two seasons, although won't be the case this season).

I realise that shocks aren't going to happen often, but they do not happen enough in this game. It's not realistic. Forget this season's FA Cup 3rd round, with just two shocks (and we created one of them ), and there's always a good four or five shocks at this stage. Tonnes of shocks in R1 and R2 IRL as well, but not so much in-game.

Probably because IRL, squads become more determined and often play above themselves when facing teams in the division above, whilst the favourites might play a weakened side or get complacent, but it seems this isn't replicated all that well in-game. For instance, take a look at Kettering. Beat Hartlepool in R1, held Leeds to a draw in both ties in R2 before collapsing in ET. Leeds then go on to beat Man United. But how often does something similar (Note: similar, as in a good L1 team scraping past a non-league side before stunning a PL side) happen in-game?

i see 1 or 2 non league sides make the 3rd round every season. hemel hempstead got there 1 season and only lost 1-0 at home to liverpool. also seen many league 1 and 2 sides make round 4 tho very few have gone beyond that i have to say.

the bigger issue with the fa cup for me is the fact that mid table prem teams put out reserve sides and go out. why do that when they have a realistic chance of winning it? for that reason tho i have seen 3 championship sides make the final inside 5 seasons.

Crystal Palace reached the final from the Championship in my FM10 save. A couple of non league clubs have reached the 4th Round.

seen plenty of shocks and big sides going out, no issues in my eyes

I've seen Forset Green i think it was knock Arsenal out of the Third Round... was quite funny

They always go on about the magic of the cup. However, i dont think ive ever seen a Non-League, even a L1 or L2 team do anything in this competition. Obviously it's unlikely but with recents results such as Leeds and even Notts County and Forest Green playing for a place in the 4th round. I just think not enough lower league teams progress realisticly. As you will all agree, theres nothing better than taking a lower league team on FM than having a cup run and beating a higher division team.

I took a football team called Washington who play in level 10 of english football to the second round, where i was knocked out by another non league side, think it was barrow?

Had Doncaster, Middlesbrough, and some other lower league team with Arsenal in the semi final in my game..

Not quite non-league teams, but still

In my current save, Dag & Red have eliminated Hull, Birmingham City (managerless) and now Everton. It's still 2010 btw.

Also, Havant & W were pretty heroic even when they slumped to defeat at the hands of Liverpool. Leeds' victory this year over Man U is one to remember (it's a good kick in the teeth to Man U that's for sure).