Farnborough fans flock to Highbury

More than 5,000 Farnborough fans descended on Highbury as the Conference side enjoyed their 90 minutes of fame up against the FA Cup holders in the fourth round.

One look at the Arsenal team-sheet, however, will have surely brought their non-League heroes crashing back down to earth with a harsh dose of reality.

Thierry Henry, Gilberto Silva and Martin Keown may have been rested, but there was still the small matter of Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell, Kanu, Francis Jeffers and Ray Parlour to overcome.

David Seaman, Dennis Bergkamp, Sylvain Wiltord and Edu were all on the bench, while Lauren added strength to a defence missing Ashley Cole through suspension.

In all, there were just three uncapped players in the Arsenal line-up, while 101 places in the football pyramid divided the mid-table Conference side and the Premiership leaders.

Hope springs eternal, however, and despite seemingly having signed their own suicide note when the tie was switched to Highbury, Farnborough somehow had to believe in miracles.

After all, Sutton managed to defeat Coventry and Wimbledon beat Liverpool in the final, while Arsenal themselves fell victim to Wrexham in 1992.

Then again, while half of Farnborough’s side are actually full-time professionals, there were still the archetypal tree surgeon, PE teacher and kitchen fitter in their ranks.

Barry Laker had failed a fitness test, being replaced by Christian Lee, while the other change from the side which beat Darlington in the third round saw teacher Darren Annon come in for Garry Butterworth.