Well played Plymouth - but it wasn’t an old fashioned cup shock.

Well played Plymouth. It’s not a Cup weekend unless we get a surprise or two. Argyle went one better. Their result is in the ‘shock’ file and they deserve all the credit in the world for pulling it off.

Having said that - and I don’t want to piss on their chips, but they didn’t really beat Liverpool did they? They beat ‘a’ Liverpool team. Ok - a good side that should have won, but modern Cup shocks aren’t the same as they used to be.

Wherever you looked at the weekend most of the top teams were making significant team changes. I don’t have a problem with that. They’ve got to because of the demands on players now, but things ain’t what they used to be in the FA Cup.

And I don’t have a problem with that either. I like finishing games at the first attempt. I’ve always enjoyed the jeopardy of penalties. It’s great tv, although I appreciate it’s a tough way to end a game if you lose the shoot-out.

We should also thank Plymouth for ending the 48 hour debate about Liverpool completing a treble. It wasn’t going to happen. It’ll never happen. It’s impossible to achieve - which is why it’s never been done.

I tweeted Thursday morning posing the question ‘when should we expect the quad debate to start?’ because I hadn’t seen any discussion about it. I shouldn’t have bothered. The very next paper I read there it was - ‘Slot’s got the hand of quad’ read The Mirror’s headline. No chance. And definitely not now. 😂.

So apart from Plymouth’s win - and let’s phrase it like that - not Liverpool’s defeat - what else can we take from the weekend?

Not using VAR made it all the more enjoyable. It’s a small change this season - not using the tech until the 5th round. It’s been wrong to have it available in some games and not others in previous seasons. How can the competition be fair when that’s the case?

Clearly the FA believe most of the smaller teams will be out by the 5th round so they’ll be able to start using it again. As for a smaller club winning the competition? A bit like a ‘quad bid’ that’s not going to happen anymore. Those days are long gone.

A lot of fuss was made about United’s winner v Leicester. Oh the irony Ruud. How van Nistelrooy had the cheek to complain about a decision going against his team I don’t know. How many times down the years did he benefit from United getting dodgy decisions?

Of course there was the usual clamour by lazy pundits and journo’s claiming Maguire’s header wouldn’t have stood if technology had been available. It didn’t need VAR. Maguire was a mile offside. You could see that with the naked eye. It just needed our hapless officials to do their jobs properly.

VAR wouldn’t have made any difference at Birmingham either. Goal line technology wouldn’t have cleared that one up. It’s not used to decide those arguments - goal line technology is.

As for Chelsea’s appeals for a handball offence at Brighton - somehow the on-field officials got that one right so once again it didn’t matter VAR wasn’t available.

While we’re on the subject - what about the PGMOL’s ludicrous claims last week that so far this season only 13 VAR errors have been made? I’ve only just stopped laughing. 13? They make 13 most weekends. Ok - that’s an exaggeration but it’s about as accurate as the PGMOL’s claims. 13? Who says so? Oh - they do. They mark their own homework ffs. It’s nonsense.

Apologies that we’re a bit short of words this week - I’m sitting on the runway at Heathrow and have got to file before we leave.