It started in the boardroom at Gloucester City. I was a bit lost among the excited adults all around me and the tea and sandwiches and smell of smoke (pre-ban), but I could tell from the tone of the chairman’s voice this was a very serious business. “I think you know what it would mean to this club to go on a proper Cup run,” he told my dad, Leroy, who was the manager of the then Southern Premier League team.

For Gloucester City “a proper Cup run” means making it to the first round and beyond; a chance to play against a professional club where you might just get to the start of one of those magical campaigns which sees you in the spotlight and playing at the likes of Old Trafford or Anfield if you progress.

I remember the Gloucester players just focusing on what might happen if they got out of the preliminary rounds and the opportunity to get spotted by a full-time club and a chance to make a career in the professional game. It’s easy (and fashionable) to be cynical about the oldest club competition in the world, but the FA Cup is the place where teams from every league in our country are afforded the opportunity to dream of making their own little bit of history.

Over recent years I have heard more and more that the “magic” of the FA Cup has been lost, that the top teams no longer see the competition as relevant as they used to due to the importance of the financial benefits of making the top four and qualifying for the Champions League.

That argument, when looking at the top level, holds weight but misses the point for most clubs who don’t have huge resources. They are just as important to their fans and the pyramid system we all operate in, and a “proper cup run” cannot only sustain them financially for years but also give the opportunity to their supporters to live the dream of competing with the big boys and tell stories to grandchildren about the day they were there.

Tell me that’s not what football is all about? As a sport it’s a rare vehicle for all of us to forget our day-to-day worries and that’s why we all love a good underdog story – just look at Lincoln and Plymouth over the last few years, among many – and for that reason the FA Cup will never lose its appeal.

As the third round kicks off this weekend, there will be many young boys and girls going to watch their local teams play against a bigger club. Indeed the FA Cup was one of the major inspirations in motivating me to become a professional footballer.

Watching Ryan Giggs’s solo effort at Villa Park against Arsenal or Steven Gerrard’s incredible shot against West Ham to take the 2006 final to extra-time, every single football fan has a personal moment and connection to this competition and I guarantee there will be plenty more to come.

What will stay with me for ever was the surreal moment in May 2014 when I was on the Hull City team coach heading to Wembley for our final against Arsenal, looking out of the window and seeing a helicopter crew filming us. I used to lie in bed dreaming of that moment as a 10-year-old boy.

It’s inevitable changes will be made to teams who have the luxury of rotating after a hectic schedule of league fixtures, but come kick-off I have never heard of or seen a team not 100% committed to going as far as they can in this competition.

In fact, the players who come in to play are hungry and determined to show their worth and see the Cup as a fantastic opportunity to make their names and achieve something special by winning a trophy that we’ve all seen held aloft when we were young.

In the last few years, with the crazy amount of money that is being spent on players and levels of investment into football clubs, I feel that the true essence of football, 11 players against 11 with any result possible, is being lost. The FA Cup is a reminder that we were all kids or underdogs once and that with an outstanding performance and sometimes even an element of luck, it is not too naive or romantic to dream of “doing the impossible”.

This weekend, up and down the country there will be supporters of clubs who deep down believe their team can do it this year and either beat a club a division or two above themselves or go all the way and win the Cup itself.

That’s what football is all about – the opportunity to dream – and the FA Cup is the best and most magical way of living it.