And few would deny the players and officials of the Hampshire club their moment of glory.

But runs such as that made by the Hawks to the fourth round of the FA Cup bring with them many irritations.

Firstly there is the rallying round of the local community as 6,000 tickets are snapped up, ensuring that 10 times the normal Havant crowd watch the side and you have to wonder how many of those who were at Anfield will be at Hayes & Yeading at the weekend.

Secondly, there are the pictures of players with kitbags standing at the road side waiting to be picked up by the team bus.

That is something that happens up and down the country to players in the Football League so it is hardly part of the 'Magic'.

And thirdly the references to the players' jobs, their hard luck stories and the spurious offers of cars to players for achieving the impossible.

Do we really need to know that the Havant side included a bin man - or refuse engineer as I believe we have to call them - a gas fitter and a cabbie?

Rarely is the fact that they are former trainees at Arsenal, Spurs or Chelsea even mentioned.

While begrudgingly acknowledging that the minnows achieved something remarkable by making it all the way through to round four, I cannot help siding with one man who was not at Anfield claiming he was boycotting the game because of the way two of Hampshire's big non-league clubs had been forced to merge in 1998 for financial reasons.

The 'Magic' was clearly missing for him.

RUMOUR has it that new national team manager Fabio Capello will include Paul Kitson in his first England squad.

Hardly a name that will strike fear into the hearts of the leading European defenders I wouldn't have thought.

But a quick glance at the Premier League scoring charts shows that the Reading man has scored more goals in the league this season than any other England qualified player.

That is still only good enough to put him in 11th place, but given that he has scored eight goals for a side that has struggled in its second season in the top flight, you would have to say he probably deserves a chance.

THE imminent retirement of Aussie keeper Adam Gilchrist has given the rest of the cricket world a glimmer of hope.

He was undoubtedly the best wicketkeeper/batsman in the history of the game and could turn a game his side's way in the blink of an eye.

But a couple of words of caution for those of us hoping it will spark a downturn in the Aussies' fortunes.

Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer have all gone in the past year or so and we all hoped that would weaken the side.

Sadly it didn't.