FIRST, let me introduce you to Charles Hughes. Who? Exactly.

Well, he was the Football Association’s director of coaching from grassroots upwards in the 80s and created in four top secret video cassettes the tactics of POMO. They became part of the FA’s official coaching manual.

The initials stand for Positions Of Maximum Opportunity (let’s keep this clean, folks!) Which, roughly translated, means hoofing the ball at every available opportunity into the opposition penalty area to create aerial chaos. In rugby it is called ‘up and under’. Hughes’ philosophy was that most goals were scored from less than three passes.

It was a style of play Graham Taylor (always the brown-nose) adopted at both Watford and Aston Villa and which eventually led him to the England manager’s job where he was hopelessly out of his depth. And ultimately led to the ‘Turnip’ jibes which will haunt him forever.

Similarly, Bobby Gould at Wimbledon won an FA Cup final against the then mighty Liverpool using the same strong-arm tactics.

Which brings me on nicely to Stoke City. They play Manchester City in Saturday’s FA Cup final and are probably the most hated – and feared – team in football.

Messrs Ferguson and Wenger “loathe” playing against Stoke. Because of the crude and physically demanding tactics of POMO employed by its present devotee Tony Pulis. Indeed, he has even added another dimension – exocet missiles thrown in by Rory Delap.

The purists will tell you that any system which dulls and neglects creativity and imagination in midfield is an offence to the ‘Beautiful Game’. True. But try telling that to the vociferous army of Stoke City fans who are not only guaranteed Premier League football for another season of magic and mayhem but have the opportunity to win their first ever FA Cup on Saturday.

There’s more. The icing on the cake is that with Manchester City having already qualified for the Champions League Pulis’ boys are now guaranteed a spot in next season’s Europa League. For what they are about to receive!

“No one loves us,” boom Marie and Elaine of Weymouth, “and we don’t care!” They may be born and bred in Dorset “but dad is a Potter.”

It is hard to disagree with such defiance. I have known both these girls for a long, long time. They both work as carers in the community and they have supported Stoke through thick and thin down the years and they are so happy to be walking down Wembley Way. It is the perfect reward for all the times they made the long trek from Weymouth to Stoke and when Premier League football was just a pipe dream.

Says Marie: “We play the way we do because it is our only hope of survival each season. You have to admire Tony Pulis. All he cares about is the club and the fans. I love him because he doesn’t care what the big clubs think about us. The atmosphere at the Britannia Stadium for every game is incredible. You cannot hear yourself speak. And if you could have heard the noise we created when we beat Bolton at Wembley in the semi-final. It was out of this world.”

I say good luck to them but how sad that once again this weekend the showpiece FA Cup Final will play second fiddle to Manchester United’s record-busting 19th league title success at Blackburn.

Not that it upsets Marie and Elaine. “When you support one of the so-called unfashionable clubs,” they chorus, “you get used to all the headlines and publicity going to the Manchester United’s of this world. Congratulations to them of course but if we lift the trophy at Wembley it will be the greatest day of our lives.”

The Cup is dead? Don’t you believe it.