I apologise if I’m stating the obvious but the FA Cup appears to have lost its lustre.

With live TV coverage of football reaching saturation point faster than Usain Bolt on the back of a cheetah, it’s not surprising.

This year, not even ITV can be bothered to get overexcited, with some bloke called Ned wheeled out to front the early-round coverage alongside the world’s most pointless pundit, Robbie Earle.

But, of course, this cynicism and malaise can swiftly be shaken, whenever Brentford have a sniff of a cup run, and we certainly caught a mild whiff of excitement after Saturday’s commendable win over Walsall in the second round. Sadly, it was killed off as soon as that famous football star Sir Steve Redgrave picked out our third round opponents.

Brentford was one of the first names out of the hat with a home tie, before it was Sir Steve’s turn.

He had virtually a full pot to pick from, with all of the Premier League big guns still in there. As he plucked the ball from the pot, for that moment our fate was in his hands and a few thousand Bees fans held their collective breath. And then the news broke.

Doncaster bleedin’ Rovers.

Redgrave may well be a genius when it comes to moving sticks backwards and forwards in the water but, when it comes to picking plastic balls out of a bucket, I think it is fair to say, he needs a bit of practice.

No disrespect intended (are you sure? Ed) and it may be just my memory playing tricks on me, but Donny Rovers seem just the kind of uninspiring but decent Championship side we usually come up against in the FA Cup.

Even when we do get a moment in the sun against a top flight club, it comes with a caveat.

A few years ago we all enjoyed a magical afternoon at Griffin Park when we got the better of Sunderland, but the joy was tempered by the fact that the Black Cats were clearly one of the worst Premiership sides in history.

We would have to go all the way back to 1989 and that quarter-final against Liverpool for our last truly blockbusting FA Cup draw.

As for this year’s cup run, at least we can take a bit of solace from the fact that we are at home and, as Doncaster are yet to win away all season, we must have at least half a chance of progressing.

If we do manage to pull off a victory, I am sure we will get a great draw in round four. Trust me, I have got a good feeling about this...