WITH all things that have been different because of the virus, football has not been normal since obviously supporters were not allowed in.

I still can’t work out why 2,000 aren’t still allowed in, I thought that proved to be a success. Especially in the Premier League, where I don’t think there are any grounds too small, and certainly the two games at St Mary’s showed how people could keep well apart.

It gave a better atmosphere to the match itself.

However, the thing that’s possibly stopped it all is the fact that just about every day now we hear about players of different clubs picking up the disease. As a result of which, our cup tie against Shrewsbury was cancelled.

I can understand now, more than ever, why even one or two managers are saying it’s probably better to stop the games altogether, because each day they will be turning up at the training ground at Premier League level, with about 20 players and staff etcetera. How can you possibly be keeping people apart?

And of course there’s the game itself.

It was proved in this last week when the FA apparently told clubs that celebrations for goals etcetera should be stopped. And yet, the day after, Manchester City were shown on television scoring a goal against Brighton and about eight players jumped on top of each other.

As their manager Pep Guardiola said at the end, this is football. How can you possibly change it?

Imagine how Sheffield United for instance must have felt, winning their first game of the season, if they were told not to shake hands even. Whilst there can be some laughs about different things, it of course is very serious when we hear how so many people are suffering from the virus and the number of deaths is going up each day.

One of the managers incidentally who suggested that football should be stopped altogether at the moment was Newcastle’s Steve Bruce. Knowing the supporters up there in the north east, they would probably say, ‘well he would say that, as it stops him from losing every game!’

They lost again this week and the owner is apparently standing by him, but the supporters definitely want him out.

The other thing about the cup ties of course, was that whilst two or three rounds are all being played within a couple of weeks, the magic is still in there, with four minor clubs making their way right through to the third-round proper, which is always their ambition.

Bearing in mind a club like Marine, who most people outside of Liverpool wouldn’t have heard of, are in the eighth tier, as well as the likes of National League North Chorley, who are still in the cup after beating Derby County, were in action as were Stockport County and Boreham Wood from the fifth tier.

Most people think the cup only starts in the first round proper, when the lower divisions enter, with the big boys coming in in the third. But we have to admire teams like these who had already played at least two or three games before the league clubs even get involved.

The sad thing of course is even though they might draw a Premier League club, they have little chance of making as much money as they would normally, as there are no crowds. So the supporters of Marine have got to be admired and congratulated on the fact that even though they weren’t allowed into the ground, they bought virtual tickets as if they were going to be there. Even though their club got well beaten, they were able to watch it on television. As a reward to the club, they paid as if they would have been there, with more than 30,000 tickets sold at £10 each. As an incentive, each supporter who purchased one enters a raffle, with the winner allowed to manage the team during a future friendly. This money apparently has helped the future of the club, which was really struggling before the FA Cup came along this season.

Getting back to our own situation with the cup, as a manager a lot depended on your league position. When you got to January or February, whilst we all wanted to win cups or get to Wembley, the manager had to keep his eye on league positions and, as I’ve said before, make sure the players knew exactly what was most important.

Staying in the Premier League is more important now than ever before. Winning cup ties is a bonus. The strange events have probably helped a manager this season. Certainly the way Saints have been playing could give us an exciting few weeks coming up with the Shrewsbury game now being rearranged.

If we win, within five days, we have the next round at home again, this time against Arsenal, who are never easy. But it’s better at home than away. If you can win that, a couple of weeks later it will be Wolves or the lower league club we’ve been talking about Chorley. With due respect to them, it will probably be Wolves, which is then away. But possibly three cup ties in four weeks.

So if Saints can keep up their winning ways, by mid-February we could be in the last eight of the FA Cup and still in the top seven of the league.

I’m sure last summer, looking ahead we’d have all settled for that at this stage.