IT IS A PRETTY POOR REWARD FOR THE WINNERS OF TONIGHT’S FA CUP REPLAY THAT THEY WILL BE EXPECTED TO PLAY AGAIN ON MONDAY IN THE SIXTH ROUND, A SURELY AVOIDABLE SCHEDULE OF THREE GAMES IN SIX DAYS.

The break from tradition that will see the four Sixth-round ties staggered over Monday to Thursday of next week rather than over a weekend, has been brought about by the Football Association agreeing to end the season earlier than normal, to allow Sven-Göran Eriksson more time to prepare his England players for Germany 2006. While most fans support giving England the best chance of success, surely common sense would dictate that the clubs playing in midweek this week, and in the Premiership at the weekend, should not then have to play again so soon as Monday when there were originally three other possible match dates available.

Naturally the managers and both sets of players would prefer to face the problem head on by winning tonight rather than slip out of the competition quietly, but it will set up a punishing fixture jam at a time of the season when legs are beginning to feel the rigours of eight months of Premiership battle. Whoever said ‘success comes at a price’ was right.

It was not so long ago that one Hammer appeared prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice though. It is 26 years since West Ham last won the FA Cup and ahead of the Third round in January 2001, Paolo Di Canio was making a promise to West Ham supporters that, on reflection, would have been better mumbled than caught on camera. “I want the fans to know that before I finish my career we are going to win something,” said an earnest Mr Di Canio. “Otherwise I will kill myself.”

Such fatalistic vision was shared by Valencia manager Hector Cuper in 2000, when, after defeat by Real Madrid in the European Cup final, he said: “I’d give my life to play the final again tomorrow.’

This life and death passion for football has reached other extremes. Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann visited orthopaedic surgeon Professor David Lloyd Griffiths four days after the 1956 FA Cup final to be told: ‘You should be dead.’ Trautmann had broken his neck during the game without anybody realising, helped City win against Birmingham City then walked around complaining of severe headaches while others nursed their celebratory hangovers.

Football’s followers have played their part too. In 1993, HFS Loans League side Congleton held a minute’s silence before a game with Rossendale in honour of lifelong fan, 85-year-old Fred Cope. There was also a very nice tribute in the match programme, which Fred apparently enjoyed reading having turned up for the game as normal, very much alive.

In South Tyneside, during Euro 2000, relatives of football fan James Corr were devastated to hear that the 78-year-old had died after being rushed into hospital. As the family mourned in the hospital corridor, his grandson’s wife, April, walked away to compose herself and glanced into the TV room, where James could be seen sitting quite happily with other patients watching Alan Shearer help England beat Germany.

As for tonight’s game, pray that we do not have to endure the perils of extra time and penalties. Medical researchers in Utrecht were concerned to discover recently that at the time of Holland’s defeat by France on penalties in their quarter-final of Euro 96, the death rate from heart attacks or strokes in men – but not women – rose by 50% compared with the same period in other years. The British Medical Journal cited high mental or emotional distress as well as heavy alcoholic consumption as the root cause.

So, maybe the players can handle three games in six days. I’m not so sure I could.