Sheffield Wednesday: The FA Cup is like Coldplay or Blackpool and the Owls should play their second string - Alex Miller

In a football world that is dominated by greed and money and the constant punching down of clubs lower down the pyramid, a format that – in theory – allows Stocksbridge Park Steels the chance to beat Manchester United is something to be celebrated.

Ronnie Radford? Gazza’s free kick? The Crazy Gang? These are pure and glorious football memories so joyously stuffed into our eyeballs whenever the FA Cup comes around. It’s an institution.

But it’s one Sheffield Wednesday would – in my humblest of opinions – suffer no harm in taking a polite step back from this season.

The Owls take on Ryan Lowe’s Plymouth Argyle on Sunday live in front of the ITV cameras fresh from what is hoped could be a launchpad win over Sunderland in midweek.

The draw is a kind one in that it offers Darren Moore’s men a dignified exit in that the Pilgrims are currently the highest-placed team in the competition – the shame of tumbling out to a non-league opponent, for example, isn’t at risk.

The FA Cup no longer has its old magic

The thing is, the FA Cup is a bit like Coldplay or Blackpool or Hollyoaks. It’s loved for what it was rather than what it is, a slightly crumbling reminder of Saint and Greavsie and former glories. And for teams outside of the top tier it’s become something to navigate rather than embrace.

MORE – Introducing the sports psychologist tasked with helping Sheffield Wednesday’s mentality

Wednesday this season, for example, have had the restful comfort blanket of international breaks swiped off them.

When the second round of the FA Cup comes around in December and the third round in January, how much of a bonus would it be to take a breather from it all while League One rivals engage in the energy-sapping rigmarole of a 3-0 defeat to Watford?

What is for sure is that while a defeat is no cause for tears, a draw would be the Owls’ least-favoured outcome. That long, long trip midweek south for a replay is an obstacle rather not considered.

Sheffield Wednesday’s fringe players to be considered?

Darren Moore has told us time and again he wants to win every match he’s faced with this season and so he should. Will he be tempted, though, to take a look at some of the squad’s more fringe players on Sunday?

Injuries and the club’s new outward loan policy mean there aren’t exactly wholescale changes he can make, but if the likes of Ciaran Brennan and Liam Waldock are back, why not chuck them in? What about Korede Adedoyin or Will Trueman?

Will this column take ‘reverse ferret’ if Wednesday blitz past Plymouth, cruise through the second and third rounds and book their place among the elite? Will it sing of the glories of the romance of the FA Cup and proudly pronounce it an important building block in Wednesday’s return to where it should be? You bet.

MORE – Dominic Iorfa sent for scan amid Owls injury struggles

But right here, right now, Wednesday’s involvement in the world’s oldest cup competition is a nostalgic nuisance.

Play Brennan, play Waldock. Hell, stick Lee Bullen and Neil Thompson in the back three.

It’s a sad, cold and miserable way to look upon something that is in its essence really rather beautiful, but there are bigger prizes to concentrate on this winter.