Football, particularly English football, has got a pretty rough ride in recent months. A predictable top four full of millionaires and foreigners, an embarrassing national side and a Premier League manager getting arrested in connection with a corruption investigation.

My faith in the great game was restored on Friday night, however, when I sat down to watch a televised FA Cup second round tie between tiny, minor league Horsham and an upwardly mobile Swansea City, currently top of League One (the third tier of English football).

What I witnessed brought a warm glow to the soul. Torrential rain, a howling gale, ankle deep mud, a penalty equaliser from a landscape gardener and a giant yellow and green hornet mascot jigging in the puddles.

Lewis Taylor, who scored from the spot six minutes from time, high-fived virtually everybody inside what is known as the Atspeed Stadium at the final whistle (although calling it a “stadium” might be bending the truth somewhat).

Swansea, the relative aristocrats, gallantly tried to knock the ball about. They deserved their lead and should have killed off the tie. But Horsham, seventh in the Ryman Premier League, effectively the sixth level of the pyramid, refused to sink on the biggest night in the club’s 126-year history.

On came deaf substitute Lee Farrell and it was he who won the penalty that produced wild scenes of celebration and earned Horsham a replay in South Wales.

After 90 absorbing minutes of goalmouth scrambles, juddering tackles, mud-soaked shirts and no little skill, what really shone through was the complete lack of play-acting, bawling at the referee or foul-mouthed chanting.

Both sets of players were a credit to the sport and one was left to wonder why it can’t be like this every week.

The draw for the third round took place on Sunday and that means the big clubs are all now in the competition. It’s odds on either Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea or Liverpool will win it, and you can bet half the Premier League clubs will field weakened sides.