PRIOR to this year's FA Cup there seemed to be a overwhelming consensus that the world's oldest knock-out tournament had lost its romance, and had become either too predicable or boring.

Aside from one Tottenham and one Everton triumph, the trophy has been shared between only four clubs since 1989 giving the illustrious competition a degree of predictability. But to say the FA Cup has lost its romance is well wide of the mark. You only have to witness Havant and Waterlooville's progress to fourth round this term to see why.

The Hampshire side knocked out League One leaders Swansea City last week, and this afternoon face the competition's seven-time winners Liverpool as a reward.

Yet despite this achievement the BBC has chosen Chelsea's unremarkable contest at Wigan as their live feature game today. Yes, the sort of predictable game you can watch week in, week out.

It is extremely unlikely the BBC and its viewers would witness an upset between a side that plays its football in Blue Square League South - five levels and 123 places below their Premier League counterparts - and Liverpool.

But you never know.

Who would have predicted Hereford drawing with Newcastle United in 1972 before recording a 2-1 victory at Edgar Street - commentator John Motson's first-ever Match of the Day broadcast - in the fourth round replay?

In fact the BBC never get sick of showing Ronnie Radford's scorcher against the Magpies.

But there have been dozens of top flight casualties to non- League sides in long historic tradition of the FA Cup.

In recent years Sutton United have dispatched Coventry City and if you look a little further back serial giant-killers Yeovil defeated Sunderland and Mansfield even beat West Ham, who included three World Cup winners in their line up.

Even Liverpool have been victims of a giant-killing cup upset, when Southern League Worcester City knocked out the Merseysiders in the third round in 1959.

But with Reds boss Rafa Benitez having world class players such as Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres at his disposal you would expect the tie to be a formality.

Yet the same could be said about Wigan's fixture with FA Cup holders Chelsea at the JJB Stadium later today. The odds on the Steve Bruce's struggling Premier League side causing an upset, against Avram Grant's high-flyers, may be smaller, according to bookmakers, but, like their non-League counterparts at Havant, do the really have any more of a chance? Unlikely.

Furthermore has the Wigan versus Chelsea tie captured the nation's imagination in the same way the Liverpool versus Havant contest? Definitely not.

It looks as if the BBC have scored an own goal with this one.

They have failed to keep the spirit and romance of the competition alive, nipping it in the bud before it had fully bloomed.