COME five o'clock tonight, Worcester City supporters, players and officials will either be drowning their sorrows at an FA Cup giant-killing chance gone begging, celebrating a famous victory, or preparing for a nail-biting rematch.

That's the tantalising prospect for 4,000 excited men, women and children due to pack St George's Lane to the rafters - the vast majority of them, we're delighted to say, hoping to see John Barton's men win.

If they have warm blood running through their bodies. they'll all rattle through the turnstiles in an intoxicating state of light-headed excitement and with butterflies fluttering about the stomach.

Not every day's an FA Cup day, of course. But today's First Round tie against Football League newcomers Rushden & Diamonds provides a timely hint of the kind of occasion we crave seeing at City on a regular basis.

Their progress from the non-league - albeit bank-rolled by a big-money bootmaker - is also a timely reminder, on a day when a petition in support of City's proposed Nunnery Way stadium is being raised, why the club's committing so much energy to the project.

We also crave, one day, looking forward to a Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal gracing the new stadium in a Third Round tie.

It's a dream which, we hope, will drift through minds before and during today's game. And at the end of it, too, when the outcome of 90 minutes battle will echo from TV sets and radios across the land.

So, end of the road, magical mystery tour or last train to Rushden? The only certainty is glorious uncertainty. You pays your money and you takes your choice. That's the magic of the Cup - and that's the magic of football too.