Aah, the magic of the FA Cup. Ronnie Radford, Charlie George, Billy the white horse every fan has been brain-washed with the images down the years.

To have a pop at the "world's oldest club cup competition" is akin to slagging off royalty. It's not the done thing.

So we've all got to pretend that it remains as exciting as ever. Which, of course, is patently not true as more Premier League sides prepare to give an airing to their reserves and fringe players.

But the Football Association do themselves no favours. Look at this weekend's first-round draw.

It will inevitably be flagged up as the chance for non-league Davids to take a pot-shot at Goliaths from Leagues One and Two. But study the fixture list closely.

There are 32 clubs from outside the Football League who have made it this far - some after three months of slogging their way through the qualifiers. Yet 11 of the ties plot one non-leaguer against another.

So, if my dodgy maths are correct, that means that only ten - less than a third - of the so-called minnows have got lucky and drawn one of the "proper" teams. Hardly the stuff of future FA Cup myth.

It wouldn't be hard for the draw-meisters to ensure that every non-leaguer pulls out plum opposition. Surely a seeding system could sort that.

I'm not in favour of regionalising it like the early round of the Carling Cup. That kind of rigged draw removes half the fun.

But a bit of tweaking to keep all the non-league clubs separate would enhance the interest for everyone - and not just the fans of those clubs.

Let's face it, I'm sure City fans would rather see someone more exotic like Histon or Ebbsfleet this afternoon than Chester for the second time in four days.

They do it in cricket to ensure the minor counties get championship opposition in whatever they call their cup these days. It's the same in rugby league for the amateur clubs who make it as far as the big boys in the Challenge Cup.

I know the FA Cup is meant to be sacrosanct, and fiddling with it is a complete no-no, but we're talking about a bit of tweaking here, not major surgery.

It's just one way of reviving the interest on the long road to Wembley - and did you know that one team in today's first round have already played there?

Ware FC, a Hertfordshire-based club from the Rymans League, began their FA Cup crusade at Wembley on September 1 and won their qualifying-round tie 4-1. That was the first of five knock-out wins, including a 5-4 "thriller" at Great Wakey Rovers.

Ware have reached the first round proper only once in their previous century of history. In 1968 they went to Luton and held their Third Division hosts goalless for an hour - and ended up getting thumped 6-1.

Now, after 39 years of "hurt", they have reached the Holy Grail once more. Their reward? A home tie with Kidderminster from the Blue Square Premier.

Ware's the magic in that?