For the first time since we bade farewell to the year in which Nostradamus predicted the world would end and the boffins told us a bug would render our computers obsolete, the White Rose has more than two representatives in the fifth round.

It may not sound a lot for the biggest county in England, but, hey, let's be grateful for small mercies.

So poor has been our record in recent years that, as the chief football writer of the Yorkshire Post, last month saw me take 'Er Indoors away for a short break on the weekend of the fourth round. A couple of months earlier when booking, it had seemed a fair assumption that none of our sides would be involved and with only a reduced programme in Leagues One and Two scheduled, the chance of a quick jaunt to Amsterdam and back seemed too good to turn down.

Well, as Robert Burns once pointed out, best laid plans and all that meant I should have known better with Yorkshire having rediscovered its fighting spirit with the upshot being that this weekend sees a handful of our sides through to the last 16.

And what a couple of days we have in prospect with supporters of Barnsley and Huddersfield Town destined for two of the most famous stadiums in the world, while Sunday sees Sheffield United take on Middlesbrough at Bramall Lane.

The clamour for tickets in Barnsley and Huddersfield was predictably loud with both clubs' 6,000-plus allocation for Liverpool and Chelsea respectively being snapped up as quickly as they could be sold.

Now, to those strange folk who do not follow a football team, this may seem a bit strange. Why would so many people want to go and watch their club suffer an almost certain defeat and pay a lot of money for the privilege?

If football does not run through your veins, such thinking is probably understandable as the bare statistics do back up the belief that both Barnsley and Huddersfield are unlikely to make it to the quarter-finals.

A quick delve through the history books shows that the past 15 seasons have seen four of our clubs from outside the top flight travel to one of the big four – Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal – and, needless to say, Yorkshire success stories have been rare.

Among the roll of defeats are Hull City's 4-2 League Cup reverse at Anfield in 1999, Rotherham suffering a 3-0 reverse at the same venue the following season and Huddersfield losing at Chelsea in the FA Cup three years ago.

Sheffield United have developed a knack of upsetting the odds in cup competition over the past decade or so, but even they found trips to Highbury and Anfield a step too far, even though Arsenal were held on home soil in 2005 and 1996.

Rotherham also claimed a draw at Highbury in the League Cup against a second-string Arsenal side who went through on penalties, leaving Huddersfield as the only Yorkshire club from below the top flight to have triumphed over one of the big four away from home.

That came in October, 1999, when a wonder goal from Kenny Irons sealed a memorable 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the League Cup. The crowd may have only been a little over 20,000, but the thousands who travelled down from Yorkshire to fill one side of the Bridge will remember that night until their dying day.

And that is why the 6,000-plus travelling armies that leave Barnsley and Huddersfield tomorrow morning will do so dreaming of witnessing one of the great Cup shocks. Let's hope they get their wish.