Of course for those of you who went to Sheffield last week it was an unforgettable night as we took an early lead and held on to it heroically, but many more people around the globe were enjoying the action and gnawing on their nails too.

I have written previously about the 'Abbey Arms' chat room on the U's Net web site, and on Wednesday night it was host to several guests who could not see each other but shared the experience nonetheless.

The official Sheffield Wednesday club site offers live commentary on many of their games, thanks to Real Audio technology. Once you have downloaded and installed some additional free software to make use of the audio feed, you can log onto the Owls' site and the end result is that you can listen to the match through the computer speakers almost as if you were listening to the radio.

Several United fans who were outside BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's coverage area listened to the Real Audio commentary while also logged onto the the chat room, and so they were able to keep everyone else up to date with events at Hillsborough. We had supporters logged on from the USA, Germany, Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Man during the match.

Perhaps the most surreal detail of the evening was when Dave, a North Terrace regular who is temporarily working in the USA, commented on how good "Cheer up, Barry Fry" sounded via the Real Audio feed!

Of course there were celebrations at the final whistle, as there were after the game at Watford last month. I could not join in at first as I was busily typing in the final match details courtesy of an emotional Mark Johnson and Steve Greenall in the Hillsborough press box, but it was a nice way to feel part of the evening, even from many miles away.

Most people then logged off for a few hours but between midnight and 1am many of the travelling fans arrived home and logged on just to share a few details and join in the general euphoria. Two former Abbey regulars even logged on from Australia to read the news and celebrate - Mick was at his desk in Sydney and Gareth was just going to work in Adelaide! The following day I had several 'humble pie' e-mails from Sheffield Wednesday fans who had predicted a comfortable victory for their side, and even some congratulatory messages from 'Boro fans.

Meanwhile, the message board, which had been full of debate and banter with Orient fans following Saturday's win, gave way to messages about the superb Cup win. Director Gary Harwood used the board on Thursday to thank the travelling fans for their marvellous support, while more mundane subjects included requests for directions to Roots Hall for the Southend game.

By Thursday morning details of ticket availability and ticket office opening hours were on the news page, and by the early evening a collection of fans' match reports were ready for reading. Interest in the game was truly worldwide with over 1,000 visitors to the site in the following 24 hours, from as far and wide as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Croatia, Japan, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Estonia and the Slovak Republic!

Of course it is only half-time in this tie so "Good Luck" to the team tonight, and be assured that, whatever the attendance tonight, there will be many more United fans all over the world willing the U's on to the next round.

"We're halfway there ..."