BLYTH SPIRITS, PSYCHICS AND A SIXTY YEAR WAIT FOR THE HEED

There are few better moments in the English football season than witnessing the FA Cup 3rd Round draw, when the minnows might just be paired up with big fish. The draw is being held tonight at 7pm, at The Deep, the large aquarium in Hull, as the ceremony has, quite rightly, been taken to the regions. In past years it was read out over the wireless from Lancaster Gate, at lunchtime on a Monday when we were having school lunch. On such occasions it had to be recorded, then revealed after the dining room had been cleared!

Tom Wade, manager of Blyth Spartans, who beat league side Hartlepool in the FA Cup 2nd round on Friday night, said: "An old woman came up to me in the Blyth car park and told us the cup results would be 2-1, 4-3, 4-1 and 2-1 and then we would draw Chelsea. "She has been right on four results in a row before had even been played! I thought I might have dreamt it as I had a couple of beers that night. "My assistant Ian Evans will back me up as I told him months ago about the old lady in the car park. That lady has got to be psychic."

 Conference club Gateshead have reached the third round of the FA Cup for the first time in nearly 60 seasons. Club Chairman Graham Wood, who watched Gateshead's defeat by Tottenham in the cup, as a schoolboy in January 1955, can now dream of facing another big-name team next month. Gateshead manager Gary Mills is planning to extend his team's run. Mills said: "Sixty years is a hell of a long time and I'm so so pleased for my chairman. He's a massive Gateshead fan and was there last time as a kid. "He's going to love me for saying this - but now he's an OAP who will see his side in the third round again." OK the picture below has artistic licence....are they really going to do the draw underwater? ps BlythSpartans is the only league club with 7 consecutive consonants in their name