Marsh & Becks: It’s the magic of the Cup

And hopefully, on Saturday, Walsall will kickstart a wonderful run that will forever live with both the players and supporters.

It’s not going to be easy, Newport County are going well in League Two. We also know Jon Whitney is coming under mounting pressure from the fans.

But it is imperative Walsall win, both for football and financial reasons.

The first round of the FA Cup, for me, was always the beginning of a massive opportunity and I hope the players today feel the same.

As a professional I wanted to test myself against the best, I wanted to play in the best stadiums and against the best players.

And the FA Cup gives players at Walsall’s level the chance to do that. It’s your chance to get into that third round and that really is magical.

My wife is sick of me talking about it but during both good times and bad times in my life I have often thought about the run we had back in the 1997/98 campaign – when we were eventually knocked out by Manchester United at Old Trafford.

It started with a 2-0 home win over Lincoln and then we won 7-0 at Macclesfield – a result that remains Walsall’s biggest ever win in the iconic competition.

I think even I had a half decent game that day, we could have scored 10.

We had some players back then. John Hodge, Roger Boli and Jeff Peron were brilliant for us going forward. And we had Adi Viveash making sure things stayed tight at the back.

The victory over Macclesfield saw us drawn against Peterborough but on Saturday the game was called off.

In those days though the draw was made during Match of the Day in evening.

That’s one of the things I love about the Cup. What’s better than looking for Walsall’s number and waiting for it to be drawn? Well that night out popped Manchester United. “And they will play... the winners of Peterborough-Walsall.”

Can you imagine the pressure we were then under going to London Road? But Andy Watson scored a brace in a 2-0 win and we were off to Old Trafford.

That is what you dream about as a kid. To play in front of more than 50,000 people against superstars.

David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Peter Schmeichel, Ryan Giggs, Andy Cole, Chris Marsh – we were all there! You can put me in that bracket!

It is something I will never forget.

Before the game – for whatever reason – I had never taken to Manchester United. Whenever they came on the TV I’d turn it off.

But when we got off the coach Alex Ferguson greeted us and he shook the hand of every single Walsall player. All the players were absolutely top notch with us as well.

And I can remember looking at them and thinking if I was that famous, I hope that is how I’d conduct myself.

I marked David Beckham during the game, which was a fantastic experience for me. And we had a bit of banter.

Before kick-off I was told Man United had a policy that their players weren’t allowed to swap their shirts. I couldn’t believe it – they were the biggest club in the world. But as we came off I asked Beckham if I could have his shirt.

He said he would see what he could do but the club didn’t allow it.

I hugged him, wished him luck at the World Cup – the World Cup he got sent off at – and thought that would be that.

About an hour later me and some of my team-mates were having a drink at the bar and there was a tap on my shoulder. It was Beckham. He said he couldn’t get me his shirt but he’d have a drink with us.

So there's us Walsall lads drinking with Beckham. He had a water. I had a beer. That is why he was in the Premier League!

And we talked about the game we played and football in general.

Despite being little old Walsall, we had gone to Old Trafford and given it a go. OK, we lost 5-1.

But the next day in the papers Ferguson praised us for going there and trying to play. He also commented how our manager Jan Sørensen was on £500 a week.

I can remember thinking at the time that was £490 too much! I’m only joking – I’ve got a lot of time for Jan and we had some great Cup runs together.

That year will stay with me forever and hopefully we can now enjoy another FA Cup adventure this year.

And who knows it might be the catalyst for the team to finally go on and find some consistency.

I was delighted that in the last away game Jon Whitney’s side finally registered a first clean sheet of the campaign and secured a convincing 3-0 win at Doncaster.

But then it was back to earth with a bump with the 1-0 home loss at Southend.

That was a really disappointing afternoon. OK, the Shrimpers defended well. But we didn’t have an answer and were far too direct at times.

I honestly believe this Walsall team is at it’s best when they get the ball down and play. You have got to get the best out of Erhun Oztumer and to do that you have to play to his feet, Tyler Roberts is also such a danger with his pace.

If you get Oztumer on the ball and playing in the like of Roberts you are going to cause teams problems.

Especially when behind them you have the likes of Kieron Morris and Florent Cuvelier who are good on the ball.

Southend was very disappointing but let’s now bounce back in the Cup.

When you are a school boy it’s your dream to play in that competition and if you do well it never leaves you.

It’s been a tough campaign so far and I really think the fans deserve some cup magic. Let’s hope the adventure begins in South Wales on Saturday.