We'll wait until the third round

That all changed in 1980 following relegation to Division Three and that year we faced Scarborough in Round One, scraping through 1-0 against the non-leaguers thanks to a Billy Hamilton goal. For Burnley fans a quarter of a century or so ago It was unheard of to even play in the competition before the New Year but that season we were out before Christmas in a replay defeat against Port Vale.

If that was bad there was worse to come six years later when we were drawn against Telford United away in the opening round. Despite the fact that we were by now struggling in the basement division there didn't appear to be any problems when we lined up with seven players in our side with First Division experience. It mattered not, we were well and truly beaten 3-0 and there was much worse set to come later in the season.

Apart from one season, 1982/83, we played in the First Round ever year from 1980 for twenty years. Our last opponents in the opening round were Barnet in our promotion season of 1999/2000, another 1-0 win courtesy of a Paul Cook goal in front of the Sky cameras.

Thankfully since then we've been exempt until Round Three but no longer is that early round something I am unaware of, and when Trevor Brooking cocked up this year's draw I watched it with relief as I saw ties such as Nottingham Forest v Yeading and Havant & Waterlooville v Millwall whilst there was no sign of the Clarets.

There was though a distinct Claret & Blue flavour to the round, and I'm not referring to Weymouth's colours, with no fewer than 25 former Burnley players involved, either on the pitch or as substitutes, with three of them scoring important goals.

Eighteen months ago our youth team fell at the last hurdle in the Youth Alliance Cup, narrowly and hardly deservedly losing out to Swindon Town. Only two of that side, Kyle Lafferty and Chris McCann, remain at Turf Moor but whilst they were involved in our league game at Cardiff, no fewer than four of their former team mates were in FA Cup action.

Two of the four were easily noticed; Marc Pugh got the opening goal in Bury's draw at Weymouth, and central defender Neal Trotman, on as a substitute, headed in Oldham's third in a 4-3 win at Kettering. For the other two, things didn't quite go as well, Michael Hale was in goal for a Fleetwood side beaten 3-0 at Salisbury whilst Alex Taylor was in attack for Barrow who lost 3-2 at home to Bristol Rovers.

There were places on the bench for three other former youth team players. Neil Howarth, who made just one substitute appearance for the Clarets in 1990, is Mark Yates' assistant at Kidderminster and goalkeeper Andy Oakes who was substitute for Swansea. The third was John Mullin who was in the Tranmere side that beat Woking 4-2 and he played alongside Gareth Taylor, who scored twice, and former loan keeper Gavin Ward.

Gareth Taylor - two goals for Tranmere

Taylor was in the Burnley squad that missed out on the play offs by one goal in 2002, and three of his team mates from that season were also in action on Saturday. Tony Grant, back after a long lay off with injury, was in the Crewe team hammered 4-0 at the Bradford & Bingley Pulse Flamingo Land Pension Fund Valley Parade Stadium by Bradford City, Gillingham, 4-1 winners over Bromley, included Ian Cox in defence whilst King's Lynn's right back was Dean ‘Fred' West, and they won 5-3 at Bishop's Stortford. West is currently acting as assistant manager following the departure of boss Tommy Taylor last week.

Striker Andy Cooke came on as a late substitute for Shrewsbury, Lee Roche played full back for Wrexham, Drissa Diallo was named in the Franchise team that could only draw at Farsley on Sunday, and Danny Sonner helped Port Vale to a place in the next round with a 2-1 win over Lincoln.

The remainder were all loan players at Burnley, including three goalkeepers, one a popular player at Burnley and two who never got a game. Andy Marriott and Nathan Abbey swapped clubs in the summer, Marriott moving from Torquay to Boston and Abbey in the opposite direction. Both played for their new clubs this weekend whilst Paul Rachubka watched from the bench as Huddersfield went out to Blackpool.

There were three former loan players in the Cheltenham squad, Craig Armstrong played but for Steve Guinan and Keith Lowe it was a subs role with neither of them coming on. It was the same news too for Bradley Orr and Neil Wood, neither got on the field as their clubs Bristol City and Oldham won. That leaves just Delroy Facey, now at Rotherham, he played the full ninety minutes but his side were surprisingly beaten 3-0 at Peterborough.

That's it, and a few of them won't be getting a game in the next round. Hopefully through ex-Clarets will remain the only we are involved at this stage in the FA Cup in years to come, and certainly for now we'll wait until two weeks on Sunday when our number 7 goes into the hat for the 3^rd round draw. If you can't wait, then take in the King's Lynn v Oldham tie on Sky on the Friday - Fred West v Neal Trotman.