Arsenal ... 5 Farnborough Town ... 1: After paying the usual tribute to Saturday's plucky opposition Arsene Wenger was happy to turn his thoughts to the midweek fixture list and the championship race. Why, he wondered guilelessly, had the Premier League allowed Manchester United to postpone their match this Wednesday on the grounds that television had ordered them to play a Cup tie yesterday?
He was being disingenuous, of course. Football understands where its priorities lie, and on Saturday the sight of Arsenal overwhelming Farnborough Town provided a perfect example of where those imperatives can lead.
Cosy was the word for the arrangement which took the game from Cherrywood Road to Highbury. Arsenal's players enjoyed a gentle run-out and emerged with no fresh injuries before Wednesday's important league match at Anfield. Farnborough, despite playing for an hour with 10 men, kept their footballing self-respect in the face of a team 102 places higher in the national hierarchy. And then, of course, there was the question of money.
As a result of agreeing to play the tie here, Graham Westley, Farnborough's young chairman and manager, will receive a cheque likely to top £500,000, or roughly double what the club would have banked from television rights had the tie taken place at their own tiny stadium.
He refused to speculate on where the money would go, beyond saying it would be used to reduce the club's debt - no doubt a relief to a man who invested money from his family's firm in the club - but he left the impression that improving the facilities at Cherrywood Road would be a waste of time.
"The club had difficulty with the council when we tried and failed to find a new ground," he said. "Then we tried to merge with Kingstonian and that was thwarted. We tried to get money from the Football Foundation and that was thwarted, too."
Nor was he encouraged by the presence of 6,000 supporters from Hampshire among the 35,108 crowd on Saturday. "The people who came to support us today were fans of football, not of Farnborough Town," he said. "Our gates didn't grow after we beat Darlington in the third round. We've had good wins in the past but it hasn't affected the attendance."
The 600 who turn up for Farnborough's home games are unlikely to dissuade him from exercising his management ability elsewhere. Prospective employers will have noted the way he prepared his team for this tie by giving the players a look at Highbury two weeks ago, by taking them to Newcastle to see how a Premiership team trains and by sending them to Spain for a final work-out in the sun.
So how long will he remain at Farnborough? "Could be a day, could be a week, could be a month." Not long, anyway? "Could be a year."
When his players returned to the dressing room they found champagne waiting, courtesy of their hosts. It was a gracious gesture and one that also indicated Arsenal's delight at the way the whole thing had turned out. The switch of venue meant Wenger's men were able to play the tie in a familiar environment, on a reliable surface and in front of their own crowd.
Several understudies were given the opportunity to stretch their limbs, their task made even less demanding once Christian Lee had correctly been shown a red card for tugging Francis Jeffers's sleeve outside the area. At that stage the Premier League side were already two up, thanks to Sol Campbell's header from a corner kick and the first of Jeffers's brace of close-range goals.
Farnborough's heroes were to be found in defence, where the alert Darren Annon twice cleared shots off his line and Michael Warner battled gamely at right-back. Only once did a Farnborough forward overcome Arsenal's superior speed of thought and execution, Rocky Baptiste rounding Pascal Cygan with curious ease and then firing home before Dennis Bergkamp and Lauren completed the holders' tally in the closing minutes.
For all the post-match goodwill, however, the alacrity with which Westley embraced the switch of venue did nothing to assist the efforts to put a shine back on the old FA Cup. "Everyone's entitled to their cynicism," he said afterwards. "I've got no regrets." But who were the true cynics here?
Guardian Service
FARNBOROUGH TOWN: Pennock, Warner, Gregory, Bunce, Annon, Watson, Lee, Carroll (Lenny Piper 86), Holloway (Chris Piper 76), Charlery (Butterworth 80), Baptiste. Subs Not Used: Vansittart, Taggart. Sent Off: Lee (28). Booked: Carroll, Charlery. Goals: Baptiste 71.
ARSENAL: Taylor, Lauren, Campbell, Cygan, van Bronckhorst, Vieira, Pires (Bergkamp 66), Parlour, Toure (Wiltord 66), Jeffers, Kanu (Edu 76). Subs Not Used: Seaman, Luzhny. Goals: Campbell 19, Jeffers 23, 68, Bergkamp 74, Lauren 79.
Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).
