AS I have said in previous weeks, many things have changed over the past year.

But, of course, what will never change in our country is the magic of the FA Cup.

Supporters would all love to have a day out at Wembley and, while every country will have their own domestic cups, I am pretty sure ours are the biggest of them all.

So like everyone this week, I was waiting for the FA Cup third-round draw.

When your number comes out first, that’s a start with a home tie.

I can imagine the manager, players and supporters at Shrewsbury were excited when they drew a Premier League club in Saints – although they would have really preferred to have a home draw.

Sadly, the difference this time will be there won’t be a full house. Even if the smaller clubs don’t win, they could well normally come away with some money which will help them for the rest of the season.

But fingers crossed, when the game is held in January, there may be more than 2,000 fans allowed in.

I am sure that Ralph, his team and Saints’ supporters were pleased to draw a team two leagues below them – second bottom of their league with just 10 points from 14 games.

Clubs like Shrewsbury would have played two games to get to this stage but the magic and dream with our cup is for a club like Marine, who not many down here have probably heard of.

They are in the Northern Premier League Division One North West, which is eight levels below the Premier League.

And who did Marine draw in the third round? Tottenham at home. On paper you could not get better than that, as Tottenham, at present, are top of the Premier League.

Good luck to Neil Young, their manager, bearing in mind clubs at Marine’s level start in the FA Cup way back at the start of the season, in the summer time. They have already played seven games to get to this stage of the competition.

To clubs like that, this is like their cup final. While a Premier League manager has to wait to get to Wembley to remind his players it’s a cup final, a club like Marine getting to the third round – it’s like the equal of them getting to Wembley themselves.

I’m sure the TV cameras will be there for that one and it would be really nice if their ground could be near capacity, but let’s wait and see.

Saints having a near-bottom of League One team in their first game in the cup could make everybody think ‘here we go, we are going to have a good cup run’.

That of course, from my own experience, would be a mistake. Never underestimate any professionals on a day like that.

Any manager on that day will lift his team, telling them nobody expects them to win and just to give it 110 per cent – that is what makes the cup so special and magical.

Shrewsbury may give a lot more than is expected but a 1-0 win will be sufficient to get through to the next round for Saints.

Meanwhile, Saints are off to Brighton in the league on Monday in front of what would normally be a packed house – with loads of our supporters to fill the ground.

Unfortunately, that can’t happen this time but never underestimate any clubs in what I call derby matches.

I know Brighton are a fair distance away but as I’ve always said, I would like Bournemouth, Saints, Pompey and Brighton all to be in the same division because it would be great for the south coast.

Those matches are always a little bit special. In the meantime, with only two in the top flight – let’s hope we can come away with the three points.