The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON
Third Round Proper
Saturday 5 January 2008
Winning clubs receive £40,000
The FA Live TV fee is £150,000 per club.
Click here for fixtures

The FA Cup's Third Round will be played this weekend and they say there might be snow on the way. In one year, some time ago, the weather was so bad that the round took a colossal 66 days to complete!

1963 was the year of "The Big Freeze", when snow and ice covered football grounds all over the country for several weeks. The scheduled date for the Third Round was 5 January, but only three of the 32 ties were played. They were Plymouth Argyle v West Bromwich Albion (1-5), Preston North End v Sunderland (1-4) and Tranmere Rovers v Chelsea (2-2).

Middlesbrough beat Blackburn Rovers 3-1 in a replay at Ayresome Park on 11 March to bring to an end the longest and most chaotic round in the history of the world-famous competition. It was the round in which ties were spread over 22 different playing days. There were 261 postponements and 16 ties were called off ten or more times.

Topping the list was Birmingham City v Bury. It had 14 postponements, one abandonment and a replay, making 16 attempts before the tie was decided. Bury won the replay 2-0 at Gigg Lane on 7 March - but six days later they were out of The Cup, losing by the only goal at Manchester City in Round Four.

It was the round that gave birth to "The Pools Panel", who gave imaginary results for the matches postponed. The resident team of assessors included Ted Drake, Tom (now Sir Tom) Finney, Tommy Lawton, George Young and Arthur Ellis.