Steve Coppell must be thrilled with the impact young Stevie Sidwell has had since he joined the club from Arsenal.

I can't honestly see Steve having a long-term future at Highbury so the loan move suits both him and Brighton, the same applies to Graham Barrett. They are in the shop window and getting regular football at a good standard rather than languishing in the reserves.

Sidwell and Barrett might eventually make their moves permanent. I hope so, because they are talented lads who will be an asset to the club whatever division they are playing in next season.

The transfer window is open for a month but you'd hardly know it.

At the start of the season all manner of big moves were predicted but business has been pretty slow in the first couple of days anyway.

Birmingham have signed French striker Christophe Dugarry on loan, a move that makes good sense to me. If they go down, Birmingham won't be saddled with a player earning big money in the Nationwide League.

Chairmen have seen what has happened to the likes of Leicester and Derby and the penny has dropped.

Big guns will be firing in Cup.

Who is going to win the FA Cup? Normally I'd fancy one of the smaller Premiership clubs, but this season I can't look beyond one of the teams in the top five at the moment.

Like the Worthington Cup, I expect the competition to enjoy a resurgence this season. The financial rewards for winning are massive and there is a guaranteed European place as well. Expect the big guns to field strong sides this weekend.

Liverpool will see the competition as a way of getting their season back on track and Newcastle, especially if they get plenty of home ties, are another club who could go all the way.

My own FA Cup memories aren't all that special although I did enjoy playing in the competition.

Twice I left clubs who got to Wembley the following season - Spurs in 1980 and Watford in 1983. My fondest memory was a fifth round tie against Swindon in 1979. We drew 0-0 down there on a bone-hard pitch and were hot favourites for the replay at White Hart Lane.

Anyway, after about ten minutes I've gone up with their centre-half at a Swindon corner and we've both fallen in a heap. I looked around and Clive Thomas, a referee who would have had an absolute field day with the red and yellow cards if he'd been in the game now, was pointing to the spot.

They scored to go 1-0 up and I got some awful stick from our crowd. About 20 minutes from time Keith Burkinshaw made a sub and I thought it must be me coming off. To be honest, after all the abuse I was getting, I was quite glad. I started trotting off when Keith gestured for Chris Jones to be replaced instead. The crowd went beserk because they thought I should have been subbed but they were soon chanting my name. I equalised with a great volley from 25 yards and headed the winner with three minutes left! They carried me off at the end.

Happy days and great memories. I'm sure this season's competition will provide a few as well.

Saturday January 4 2003