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From Leslie Griffiths, Methodist Minister:

The F.A. Cup is a great leveller. It鈥檚 David versus Goliath over and over again. Top-flight clubs have to pit their wits against unfashionable teams from way down in the bargain basement. Players whom we see constantly on television take on footballers destined for decent obscurity. So fair-minded people across the land find themselves shouting for the underdogs, hoping for a shock, longing to put those expensive upstarts in their proper place. That鈥檚 what I was rooting for as I sat glued to the television set over the weekend. Nor was I disappointed. First it was Coventry nailing Stoke City, then little Newport County who did for Leeds United and finally, oh dear, Nottingham Forest who sent my beloved Arsenal packing. Who would have thought it? But that, of course, is what cup football鈥檚 all about. It鈥檚 as if some higher power manages to exalt the humble and meek by bringing down the mighty from their thrones. It was a previous Arsenal defeat that produced one of the most brilliant newspaper headlines I鈥檝e ever seen: 鈥淲rexham Wrecks 鈥楨m,鈥� it declared. It works better in print!

The David and Goliath story鈥檚 as old as the hills, three thousand years and counting. In my Sunday School days, it was one of the Bible stories we loved the most. David, a youngster who looked after his dad鈥檚 sheep, managed with a simple slingshot to bring down the mighty giant Goliath, a mountain of a man hardened in battle. This was as good as any of the movies we saw in our Saturday morning visits to the Adelphi Cinema. How we lads and lasses identified with David. Like him, we imagined ourselves capable of facing up to great obstacles and overcoming them. This story, like so many others in the Bible, has jumped out of the Good Book and into the common culture. It鈥檚 like a fable to encourage young people to believe in themselves and to aim high in life.

The man of the match in the Nottingham-Arsenal encounter was just eighteen years of age. Ben Brereton turned out to be a true giant-killer in the manner of David.聽 Poor Goliath. He didn鈥檛 have a chance.