I’ve attended two FA Cup matches this season, one when Burton Albion took on Oxford City at the Pirelli Stadium and the game at Pride Park where Derby knocked out Doncaster to go into the last 16 draw.

Differing emotions came from each, at the Oxford game we were supporting Oxford City as part of our FA Cup Quest, and when Burton stole the game (and they did steal it) with a late, late goal from Ryan Austin you could feel the Oxford fans (and us vicariously) deflate.

At Pride Park today, the West Stand Upper was closed off as the Rams were only expecting 10-12,000 supporters. In the end 11,316 made the effort (including 1,453 Donny fans). Tickets were down to £15 as well.

It wasn’t a great match, but I was suprised at the attendance really because it was a fourth round tie against opposition from the same league and I thought the Rams had a real chance of winning (in the end a wonder-strike by Jay McEveley did for Donny).

Next week in comparison, the East Midlands Derby game against Forest will be sold-out, and a lot of genuine fans that wanted to attend the game (some of whom would have attended the Donny game) will be locked out.

But all the same it was a very different atmosphere from a league game and the match had its dull points, but in a strange way I enjoyed it, when the late goal went in sending us into the fifth round it took us away from our league troubles, if just for a while.

Although like most fans if you said I could swap it for six league points in the next two fixtures I’d definitely take that especially against our newly-arrogant neighbours Forest.

Financially, the Derby board will love it as well as despite the low attendance it will be compensated for when the Rams take on Premier League Birmingham at Pride Park in the next round.

Leeds fans will be loving their cup-run having knocked out Manchester United and now taking Spurs to a replay, but would a bumper crowd turn up at Elland Road if they had drawn someone like Notts County? probably not.

Maybe i’m being churlish and its natural for bigger attendances to go to the glamour clubs, but you wonder why most stadiums are looking like Middlesbroughs come FA Cup time.

Infamously, in the third-round, Wigan only had an attendance of only 5,335 fans for their all-Premiership clash with Hull and many other clubs this season have struggled when their draw in the FA Cup hasn’t been against a glamour club.

So are football supporters getting tired of the FA Cup? The attendances for teams like Derby and Sheffield Wednesday would seem so. Under normal circumstances, The Rams and the Owls can rely on a healthy crowd.

Season ticket holders once they have used their cup-vouchers just aren’t interested in paying extra, even if the ticket prices are reduced, until at least the club gets the plumb draw that they were hoping for.

The FA Cup still has some life in it though, non-league clubs still love it, and now Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal are out many teams will see it as their best chance of a trophy this year. Although many will look at former cup-winners Portsmouth and wonder if winning the competition is all that it is cracked up to be.

You have to feel though that something should be done by higher league clubs to get more people interested in the poorly attended games, even if that means cutting prices to an all time low (although my experience on Saturday would say that this still didn’t work!) or by giving people incentives to go by offering discounts on the tickets for the bigger matches.