THERE'S nothing quite like an FA Cup run to get the fans excited.

We found that out last season and hopefully, now, we can overcome Gillingham and set ourselves up for another crack at the quarter finals.

Although I'm injured, I was delighted to be at Mansfield and I thought the victory was achieved pretty comfortably in the end.

It all goes to show the gulf that exists between all the leagues nowadays.

They had been scoring goals for fun in the Third Division, but as they found it's a whole different ball game when you come up against better defences.

We haven't enjoyed the best of times recently in that department, but the whole back four looked pretty solid last weekend and hopefully that's a sign of better things to come.

One thing that definitely doesn't seem to be getting any better, however, is the standard of refereeing.

Saturday's official, Phil Prosser, seemed to think everyone had come to watch him as he flashed his precious cards around like confetti.

Three sendings off and a handful of bookings makes the cup tie sound like a bloodbath, but I genuinely can't recall one dirty tackle in the game.

It's happening far too often and I firmly believe the referees responsible need to start being held accountable for their actions.

As a player or manager, you can speak out about a referee's performance and find yourself being hauled before the FA to answer a disrepute charge.

And speaking as a player, you know if you have an absolute stinker you can expect to find yourself dropped for the next game.

But no matter how bad the man in black is, there he is, week after week, flashing the red and yellow cards and affecting teams up and down the country as they pick up the pieces from ridiculous suspensions.

Naturally, the referees hide behind the infamous assessor sat in the stands and marking them against rules they must obey.

But strangely, whenever I see Pierluigi Collina totally in charge of a game, the cards stay in his pocket, yet he is hailed as the best referee in the world!

Both can't be right, can they?

So how about some sort of punishment scale for consistently bad referees? I know there is a form of summer assessment, where the select list of top officials is reviewed and some get either promoted or relegated.

But week in and week out a rule that sees them either fined, or forced to miss games, would be a real deterrent to some of the ridiculous decisions they make all too regularly.

In the meantime, it's back to one of my old stomping grounds this weekend as we visit Crystal Palace.

I'm gutted to miss the game through injury, but hopefully I'll be back for either the West Brom game next weekend, or the FA Cup tie the week after.