The FA Cup is still English football's great equaliser and remains as special as ever

The FA Cup third round remains English football’s great equaliser, the single day that brings so many levels of the game together, and yet the competition isn’t equal for everyone in terms of meaning.

That does not just apply to the difference between the top end of the game and the rest, either. Sure, ask anyone in the lower leagues and they will gladly say that - for all the debate about its modern relevance - this remains the date they all look forward to; the day they’re all hoping for that special fixture. Tranmere Rovers, Lincoln City, Grimsby and Woking Town won the lottery this year in that sense.

It does feel typically fitting that lowest-placed side left in the competition - sixth-tier Woking Town - get to host someone from the top division, as Kingfield Stadium invite Watford. Recently back in the football league, Tranmere meanwhile get to show Tottenham Hotspur what Prenton Park is all about. There is that gloriously unique feeling of bringing some of sport’s most glamorous to your place, and hopefully bringing them down to earth.

For Lincoln and Grimsby, then, there’s that other special feeling that this day can yet hold. Their fans get that wide-eyed wonder, but also that determined resolve, of going to the homes of the big boys; of appearing at arenas they wouldn’t otherwise get to experience. Grimsby go to Crystal Palace and Selhurst Park; Lincoln go to one of the most storied stadiums in European football history in Goodison Park.

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This is just the wondrous way the competition brings the various levels of the sport together, in a literal sense, but also brings some other elements together. The excitement from teams involved in such matches is a long way from the stories about certain Premier League clubs, and certain managers, who would willingly play second-string sides because they cared more about February squad trips to the sun rather than this most historic of trophies.

That, unavoidably, is a very prevalent modern view.

There’s also the complication that Premier League survival is now so important for clubs - and is a real pressure for almost half the division - that they almost can’t afford to devote energies to other competitions.

The leaders Liverpool and Manchester City, meanwhile, do genuinely have grander aims.

But that is also precisely why it should mean more for some other Premier League clubs - because there is an opportunity there; because really taking it seriously could mean tangible achievement.

There are two obvious candidates here, and one that should be much more obvious. Much has of course been made of the fact Maurizio Sarri and Mauricio Pochettino have never won trophies, and there can really never be better opportunities than an open competition like this. Then there’s the team that Lincoln go to: Everton.

They are the English club with the most trophies who are now on the longest silverware drought. This is what they really should be targeting. This is what Marco Silva should be looking to make his name through.

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Similar applies to that increasingly narrow band of clubs who should be safe in mid-table, and thereby be able to spare that bit more for the competition: Leicester City, West Ham United, Watford, Bournemouth, maybe even Brighton and Wolves. The last side there are involved in what is notionally the tie of the round, against Liverpool, but then part of what makes the day special are those stories suddenly popping out of nowhere.

It still provides that special feeling, in a way the third round remains a special day.