It doesn’t concern us this season, but the FA Cup Third Round takes place this weekend. You know the drill now, too. It’s when all those plucky lower-leaguers look to bruise the egos of the rich and famous. Plimmuff go to Liverpool, Arsenal to Preston and Posh to Chelsea are some examples. And it’s the occasion to which we all look to see who the latest FA Cup Giant Killers are going to be. Boro’ have been there thanks to exploits against Newcastle and Swindon. How do we compare to fellow giant killers over the years, however? Well…
FA Cup Giant Killers: The Rankings
In celebration of this weekend’s Third Round festivities, a project holds the answer to a question some of us may have once asked. A band of intrepid folk devised a system to rank all those FA Cup Giant Killers from the past 25 years to see who tops the pile. The outcome, alas, is not one for the sensitive souls out there. That’s because Luton Town, it seems, rule the roost. Second are Oldham Athletic, while in third are Swansea City – and presumably not because of their 2-1 Second Round win over us in December 2003.
Stevenage, if you were wondering, rank a respectable 6th.
So, how did this project work? Well, in its own words: “Taking the final league position of each team that made the Third Round, we studied each match-up to find the differences in positions and discover which teams caused the biggest upsets.” You can visit the website to see a working example – featuring Crawley Town. It also breaks it down by year, in case you were interested. We’re top of the pops in 1997-8, as you might expect after beating Swindon Town. There’s plenty of info to digest, so why not head over and take a look?
Why not explore Stevenage’s season-by-season record in the FA Cup too?
