Eastbourne Town were at home to Lancing in the Sussex Senior Cup on Saturday and there were an eventful first ten minutes.

Town were awarded a second-minute penalty as the visiting ‘keeper climbed all over their big No.10 – who is called "Lofty" because his surname is Loft, not because of his height. The kick was firmly struck towards the bottom left-hand corner but the ‘keeper had, er, anticipated it and pushed the ball away at full stretch.

Town were rampant against a side from a lower division and "scored" direct from a corner but it was chalked off apparently for a foul on Lancing’s overworked custodian.

Then the inevitable opening goal came and Town went on to win an entertaining tie 4-2. There were several very young children, i.e. "toddlers", in the crowd at the covered end and one of them ran onto the pitch as the home side shaped to take a corner.

I wasn’t the only person shaking his head.

I’d chosen that game to be sure of being back in time for the FA Cup First Round draw on the telly at 5.10. My first ever game, about a hundred years ago, was a First Round tie between Crystal Palace and Hitchin Town and it’s always been my most special day of the season.

It was a dozen years before I saw a "giant-killing", Walton & Hersham knocking out Exeter at Stompond Lane in ‘72, and my total of First Round matches has now reached 51.

The luck of the draw, eh? Yeading go to Nottingham Forest less than two years after playing Newcastle. Maidenhead hadn’t played a League club in The Cup for 46 years, coincidentally since the afternoon of my first game at Selhurst Park, and they got Stafford Rangers away.

For "The Barber" a Cup weekend in Dorset is definitely on the cards, featuring Bournemouth on the Saturday and Weymouth on the Sunday.

The only fly in the ointment there is that the Sussex Intermediate Cup Second Round ties are also scheduled for 11 November. They include Little Common v Eastbourne United Reserves and (shakes with emotion) Willingdon Athletic v University of Chichester. What’s a boy to do?

There was another cup-tie last Sunday as the "Old Town" youngsters took on Lindfield before 20 or so mums and dads at Larkin’s Field. This one also finished 4-2, to the away team, after extra time. Tonight’s game at Leyton Orient, in something called the "Johnstone’s Paint Trophy", will be No.60 this season.

David Barber, aka "The Barber", joined The FA’s International Department as a teenager in 1970, working in the same office as Sir Alf Ramsey at 22 Lancaster Gate. He has remained on the staff ever since, except for a three-year spell reading philosophy at Liverpool University from 1975. He has compiled more than 100 football books and attended 5,191 matches.