The right to dream

So in the end, after 210 minutes of an FA Cup tie in which they'd been by turns gritty, vulnerable, slipshod, resilient and occasionally inspired, Norwich City did manage to scramble past a gallant Blackpool and on to a date at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. In many ways, indeed, the Canaries' 3-2 extra time victory encapsulated their whole season to date: flirting with disaster, and causing the pulses of their supporters to quicken to an at times feverish rate, but ultimately having just enough class and desire to get the job done.

Just as Norwich appear to have that bit too much quality to avoid becoming embroiled in a relegation battle so many had feared only a couple of weeks back, so they ultimately had too much for their League One opponents: indeed, for all the utter frustration of the first hour or so of Tuesday night's replay, and for all that the Tangerines were briefly allowed back into the tie during the additional half hour, there were - albeit fitfully - once again signs of the kind of team Peter Grant is trying to build, and the football it may be capable of producing. It would have been all too easy for a depleted Canary side short of both confidence and spirit to have subsided at Bloomfield Road in the first match almost three weeks ago; and indeed, to have gone on to lose to Leeds, so becoming ever more stranded in the relegation quicksand.

Instead, while this observer is aware such words may be tempting fate, the battling draw secured in Lancashire followed by vastly improved performances against Wolves and Leeds really does suggest this season, perhaps even the club's miserable fortunes over the past eighteen months, have finally turned, with the remainder of the campaign offering the chance for Grant to really stamp his authority on the club, continue to shake up the team, and provide encouragement of the bright future which may yet lie ahead. And moreover, with Blackpool having been disposed of, the immediate future offers genuine excitement, and what is arguably the club's biggest match since that day of despair at Craven Cottage two seasons ago. For only the second time in twelve years, City are involved in the FA Cup fifth round; and there, fiendishly unlikely though it undoubtedly is, they have the opportunity to do something truly remarkable and make a little bit of history.

When either Blackpool or Norwich were initially drawn to play Chelsea away two-and-a-half weeks ago, it's fair to say most Canary supporters found the prospect distinctly underwhelming. At that stage, of course, the team was struggling desperately, and there was no guarantee at all that the replay against the Seasiders wouldn't be an occasion for further misery; but in any case, given Jose Mourinho's men sauntered to a 4-0 victory over a pathetically timid Norwich when the two sides met in the Premiership in December 2004, what chance the Canaries given they'd fallen a further twenty places or so in English football's pecking order since? Appallingly, some fans even voiced a preference for Blackpool to go through, in order to avoid the prospect of total humiliation being reported on by the national press and laughed at by the Match of the Day audience.

But in sport, sometimes the most ideal environment for success comes when a team or individual has literally no chance on paper, and absolutely nothing to lose. Norwich, indeed, are now the lowest-ranked team left in this season's competition, and up against the second-strongest one: what hope can there possibly be? But the thing about the FA Cup is, however much it is dominated nowadays by the same four clubs which exhibit a complete strangehold over the Premiership, and even allowing for the fact that, in spite of the three marvellous fourth round replays which have showcased the English game over the past two evenings, there were ultimately no upsets whatever in the last 32 of this year's tournament, it does still offer supporters of all clubs the right to dream.

Newcastle fans, for example, continue to hold the competition in considerably higher esteem than they do the league; Tottenham supporters do likewise. And for Norwich fans, whose team has three times reached the Cup's penultimate stage, and three times fallen at that heartbreaking hurdle, the dream endures as powerfully as ever. Followers of Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool or Arsenal, who have come to expect regular success in an increasingly predictable event, even when often treating it as a poor third to the Premiership and Champions League in terms of importance, will never be able to comprehend what it can mean to other clubs: for the Canaries to reach the final just once would be something to cherish for a lifetime, and pass on down to future generations of supporters.

The writer knows this, because of the way the extraordinary 1959 Cup run by Archie Macaulay's side - then of the old Third Division - has passed into Canary, indeed Norfolk legend, and continues to be talked about to this day by those lucky enough to have experienced it. One-off shocks occasionally happen in football, but those responsible for producing them invariably come down to earth with a resounding bump in the next round. But not the 1959 Canaries, who produced not one, not two, but four shocks, including among their victims both Manchester United and Tottenham en route to a desperately unlucky semi-final replay defeat by Luton. No side from the third tier has ever gone further, and no side has ever bettered City's number of higher-division victims either.

One other season in Norwich's FA Cup history stands out too. Forty years ago, on 18 February 1967, a Canaries team nineteenth in the old Second Division, and with very real fears of the drop, travelled to face Matt Busby's Manchester United at Old Trafford. United were then second in the top flight, and would go on not only to win the championship that season, but become the first English club to plunder the European Cup the following year: yet astonishingly, Norwich won 2-1. Indeed, perhaps that moment of triumph provided the impetus for City to believe they themselves really ought to be dining at English football's top table: something which was accomplished at last five years later.

Now, on 17 February 2007, a Canaries team eighteenth in what used to be known as the Second Division, and still harbouring some concerns about relegation, will be facing a Chelsea side currently placed second in the top flight: parallels which would surely strike any observer as eerie, to say the least. The Blues might well go on to secure the title, and conquer Europe too; but surely it won't be after the modern-day shock to end all shocks, will it?

Rest assured that this fan hasn't been taking something he shouldn't: football is vastly different nowadays compared with four decades ago, and upsets of this scale almost never happen - indeed, never mind losing to lower-division opponents, the last time a member of the modern-day Big Four was knocked out at home by opponents who didn't happen to be part of this elite group was a full four years ago (Crystal Palace's 2-0 success against Gerard Houllier's desperate Liverpool). And even if many fans are now rather more hopeful than when Chelsea initially emerged from the hat, a realistic prediction for Saturday is still something like 3-1 to the Blues, rather than the four or five-goal drubbing which appeared inevitable before Norwich's recent upsurge in fortunes.

But this is the FA Cup: there is the right to dream. And if Chelsea's supporters turn up expecting a stroll in the park, if the Champions are complacent and continue to function more as a collection of individuals than a real team, if Darren Huckerby's recent hot streak continues, if Dion Dublin continues to turn back time on his run to a surefire triumph as Norwich's Player of the Year, if David Marshall is as inspired as he famously was when helping Celtic eliminate a star-studded Barcelona from the UEFA Cup in 2004, if Grant instructs his players not to sit deep and invite pressure but adopt the same commitment to countering quickly and with numbers which served Mike Walker's men so well in Munich fourteen years ago, and if the visitors have all the luck going... well, who knows?

Of course, an upset is unlikely - it's very unlikely - but Dublin certainly, and Huckerby possibly, will never have a similarly big stage on which to shine in the future. And moreover, there has been the sense throughout the encounters with Tamworth and Blackpool that a Norwich team which has underperformed chronically in the league has saved something extra for this season's FA Cup: with the pressure off, now is their chance to be positive, enjoy themselves, and put the club back in the headlines for all the right reasons. Whatever happens, 6,000 Canary fans will be there to cheer their favourites on, not in expectation, but the enduring hope that something incredible could yet transpire, and this excited supporter will be among them. All the logic going suggests a highly chastening afternoon awaits - but this is football, this is the FA Cup: and anything can happen.