AHEAD of their 2001 FA Cup semi-final with Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was asked if he paid any heed to their North London rivals’ long-held superstition that they always win the competition when the year ends in one.

Being the man of reason and logic that he is, Wenger simply shrugged off any suggestions that might prove to be the case and countered that if you were to feed all of the various Cup superstitions of each club into a computer, it would return the verdict that it would be impossible for any team to win it.

The point is, something always has to give.

That was the case when Saturday’s third round showdown between Barrow AFC and Rochdale threw up a paradox of it’s own; the Bluebirds had never lost to Dale in the world’s oldest domestic knock-out competition in any of their previous meetings, yet had also never gone beyond this stage.

At some point, something was going to have to give.

Of course, the thick fog that descended on Holker Street in the morning and stayed in place throughout the day, may have led some to wonder whether or not the match might even go ahead.

Not on this day – FA Cup third round day – though. Not with BBC’s Football Focus coming live from the ground, not with Setanta and Fox Sports broadcasting the game live in Ireland and the USA respectively. If anything, this was what might be termed ‘Proper Football Weather’.

Given how this clash was overlooked for live television coverage on these shores, adding to the annual debate about which matches host broadcasters the BBC and BT Sport should or should not have decided to show, it may seem strange that foreign channels would decide to show it.

However, the match-up between a team close to the summit of the Vanarama National League and a Sky Bet League One outfit, while lacking the glamour of a Premier League side, throws up the prospect of an upset. Besides that, there are small pockets of overseas interest in how Barrow fare week in, week out – and not just in the form of their Texas-based owner Paul Casson.

Take, for example, the two fans from Denmark who had made the trip over to attend this game and had pinned their flag up in the window of the Cross Bar while enjoying the pre-match build-up. And then there were the fans from Argentina, who attracted the attention of the Football Focus team.

They were among those who packed into the clubhouse for the BBC’s visit, with host Dan Walker, and pundits Mark Lawrenson and Kevin Kilbane there to oversee proceedings.

Yet while Kilbane was on the receiving end of some good-natured booing due to his brother Farrell’s connections with Barrow’s old rivals Lancaster City, the trio and even Rochdale chairman Chris Dunphy were made to feel welcome.

Also in attendance was the FA Cup itself – or, at the very least, one of the replicas of it the game’s governing body had made. Conspiracy theorists will even have you believe Chelsea were presented with a replica of the famous old trophy in 2000 due to holders Manchester United refusing to hand the original back until they were actually able to defend it, having controversially pulled out of that season’s competition to undertake an ill-fated foray into the Club World Cup.

Not that anyone was particularly fussed either way. After all, it is not every day the FA Cup is in town or that there is the opportunity to pose for photographs with it. For Barrow manager Paul Cox and his players though, there were no time for such frivolities.

‘Time to make history!’ was the call from those Barrow supporters in the Ray Wilkie Stand who held up a banner with just that written on it as the players made their way out on onto the field. Given their FA Cup record against the hosts, the same might have applied to Rochdale as well.

Something has to give, and something does give in the 17th minute when Dale forward Ian Henderson rises up to head past debutant goalkeeper Jon Flatt after shaking off his marker at a corner, silencing the 4,414 sell-out crowd. Save, of course, for the 668 who had travelled with the away side.

The crowd – the biggest Holker Street has seen for 27 years – comes to life again seven minutes later though when Nick Anderton plays in Richie Bennett, only for Dale goalkeeper Conrad Logan to save one-on-one and then do the same when Moussa Diarra tries to follow up on the rebound.

At the other end, Steven Davies fires wide wide when through on goal early in the second half when he should have at least managed to get his effort on target twice.

But Henderson does not make the same mistake and in the 62nd minute, he is put through by Oliver Rathbone and fires past Flatt to give Rochdale a two-goal lead.

Byron Harrison has the ball in the back of the net for Barrow, only for it to be ruled out as Logan already had possession of it, and the striker shoots narrowly wide in added time as the home side keep pushing.

And when referee David Webb blows his whistle to signal full time, it brings to an end the Bluebirds’ participation in the FA Cup for another season.

Their wait to progress beyond this stage of the competition goes on, but Rochdale were finally able to lay to rest their own hoodoo.

Something had to give though. It always does.