SEAN Dyche believes the FA Cup has suffered from being in the Premier League’s shadow, but try telling the Burnley boss that the competition is suffering a slow death.

Dyche had some iconic times in the tournament as a player, particularly the famous run with Chesterfield to the 1997 semi-final, where they were beaten by Middlesbrough, and tonight he will seek to take Burnley to the fourth round by beating Sunderland at Turf Moor.

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Third round weekend was littered with low attendances and complaints about the live TV coverage selections, but Dyche doesn’t believe the cup has had its day with fans.

“A lot of football now is very media driven. The media drive on the Premier League is massive,” he said.

“The FA Cup can’t quite grab that, because you don’t get it every week. It happens when the rounds come around. The build-up will be really big then, and then it softens until the next round.

“The fans I speak to certainly enjoy the FA Cup. If you look back, the early rounds were never really that well covered anyway. I played for teams in the lower leagues who were often part of those early rounds.

“As it grows and moves forward, it gets more exciting, more meaning on it, more purpose to it. It’s just the way it is. I just think the business side of football is so powerful now, particularly in the Premier League.”

From a managerial point of view towards the cup, Dyche added: “I know the cup’s got more excitement in the sense that it’s a knockout, but over a season, the Premier League is more powerful.

“I certainly haven’t overthought doing the FA Cup down. I’ve had some fantastic occasions in it. I just think there’s a common sense point of view from managers.”

Dyche was captain of Chesterfield when the third tier side reached the last four in 1996/97. They drew 3-3 with Middlesbrough at Old Trafford, when Dyche scored the only penalty he ever took in his career, but lost a replay 3-0 at Hillsborough.

“The thing people forget about that is we had some tough games,” he said.

“One that people never remember is the game no-one wanted to lose, the quarter-final against Wrexham, nobody really mentions Wrexham now, but we still get a mention because we made the semi-final.

“But we beat Bolton in that season and that was the season they scored 100 goals and got 100 points.

“We went away and beat them 3-2. We were 3-0 up, that was a massive result.”

In the semi-final Chesterfield led 2-1 against Boro when Jonathan Howard’s shot against the bar bounced down and looked to have crossed the line. Referee David Elleray disagreed, denying the Spireites a potential lead.

“I’ve definitely forgiven him for that because it would’ve been rubbish for me to walk out of Wembley as Chesterfield captain,” Dyche jokes.

“It’s a very positive moment that I had in my career. If we get the decision, you’ve got to fancy your chances then.

“Everybody remembers it going over the line, and it wasn’t given, but then there’s a foul on Andy Morris so he had two opportunities to give something. Then I could’ve scored two penalties.”

Asked if the semi-final defeat was the biggest regret of his career, Dyche said: “I don’t do regrets. You look at it another way and what an occasion.

“It was amazing, walking out at Old Trafford for a team like Chesterfield in the semi-final of the FA Cup and scoring a last 10 second goal to get a 3-3 in arguably one of the best semi-finals there has been.

“Why would you fill your head with regrets? You fill them with good times and I remember those to be absolutely amazing.”