Penalties are a small price to pay if FA Cup is to remain
relevant  The FA Cup is not the draw it once was but if ties
were decided at the first time of asking, big clubs might try a
little harder Nicklas Bendtner Nicklas Bendtner scores aganist
Ipswich in the Carling Cup semi-final. One of the Cup’s
attractions is there are no replays. Photo: Shaun
Botterill/Getty Images  This weekend football will be up for the
cup, the fourth round of the FA Cup to be precise, but again the
attendance figures are likely to suggest that fewer fans are up
for it than used to be the case. Ties that would have once
packed grounds are now played in front of rows of empty seats.
Managers often use cup games to give their regular players a
break.  In this season's third round, attendances at all but a
handful of ties were well down on gates for league games.
Sunderland lost at home to Notts County watched by a crowd of
less than 18,000, which was nearly 21,000 below their Premier
League average.  The appetite for cup football is