IT used to the biggest day in the football calendar. On Sunday it came and went without most people even giving a second glance to it.

The FA Cup third round draw always had a bit of magic surrounding it when I was growing up. It was the romance, the sense of possibility and that feeling of hope as you were waiting for your side to be pulled out of the hat.

Now, for a lot sides, it seems to be seen as more of a distraction than anything else. After all, it is all about the league for every side throughout football.

Fair enough, Tamworth were probably chuffed at pulling Everton out of the hat but in all honesty no one really cares about cup upsets any more.

And as for Blackburn Rovers, they may have pulled an all-Premier League clash in the shape of an away trip to Newcastle United, but it hardly brings about a ripple of excitement as it may well have done in the past.

Remember those giant killing acts of yesteryear from the likes of Yeovil Town, Sutton United and Hereford Town to name but a few. These were moments that drew the whole of football in.

Now it is almost as though the top two tiers of football have stopped caring about cup competitions. You can guarantee that the majority of Premier League and Championship sides won’t even play full strength sides when third round day comes around.

You can’t blame them but it is just the way football has gone. Money has become too important and it is spoiling the purity and beauty of the game that sucked so many of us in in the ‘good old days’.

Take Manchester United’s quarter final Carling Cup exit at the hands of Crystal Palace the other day.

It would have been talked about for years once upon a time, not any more. It has almost been forgotten already.

Of course, we all try and hype up these moments these days and you hear the media shouting about potential cup upsets. It can’t hide the fact no one really cares any more.

That is the problem with football now. It is all about money, all about survival and all about just doing enough to get by.

It is getting boring talking about what relegation would cost and the financial ramifications of dropping out of the league. I’m sure it never used to be like that.

Don’t get me wrong we all still love our teams and we all love watching a good game of football. But do we enjoy it as much as we used to? I’m not so sure.

Maybe I am just a ‘miserable old git’ now I am in my 30s but football is a business. It isn’t that sporting contest it used to be and you get the feeling things are only getting worse.

* * * * *

What happens to some football fans when they get in front of a computer?

Twitter, fans message boards and internet forums are full of posts from people launching vitriolic verbal attacks at people they don’t even know.

It is as though they think hiding behind a user name makes it okay to be abusive towards players, journalists, managers or other fans.

That doesn’t make sense to me. Surely these ‘keyboard warriors’ wouldn’t be like that in real life so why do it?

Someone even said to me ‘it is fine I can write what I want on the internet because I can’t get into trouble legally’.

Well, you can actually and you get the feeling it will increasingly become more of an issue.