Away the lads
As reported in last week’s review, there were eight FA Trophy ties at the weekend with the furthest north taking place at Banbury in Oxfordshire. Seven of those eight ties produced wins for the away teams with the only exception being Aldershot Town’s win over Dorking Wanderers. This could mean that the most southerly tie in the Quarter Finals could be at FC Halifax Town with five northern teams outnumbering the three southern sides left in the competition.
New York boss chasing the big apple
It’s been a turbulent few months at York City. After John Askey took
York City back to the National League through the playoffs last season, he was replaced by David Webb in December, although Webb was unable to take up the role until Boxing Day due to illness. Six weeks later, Webb was sacked with Michael Morton taking over on a temporary basis. Morton led the club to a 2-0 win at Southend United to reach the Quarter Finals of the FA Trophy.
Close encounters of the fifth kind
In the 5th Round of the FA Vase, the eight ties were all close games. No more than one goal separated the teams in any tie, with three going to penalties. Two of the winners of the penalty shoot-outs were ‘ampersand’ teams – Peacehaven & Telscombe winning 3-1 on spot kicks at Harefield Town and West Didsbury & Chorlton winning by the same margin at Coventry Sphinx. Newport Pagnell Town, the holders, kept the free-scoring Jersey Bulls at bay with a 1-0 home win to reach the last eight.
A long sentence
A regular reader liked the Chard Town v Fry Club piece last week. He writes, “I like things like this – it’s the sort of things that makes non-
League football more fun, and the one that I have always wanted to take place is a game between the Met Police and Crook Town – that would make me laugh”. He goes on to say that we should run a competition. OK, any other ideas out there?
More penalties
It’s not only teams with ampersands that can take penalties, but teams with long names and a long history are pretty good too. Last week, in the Abacus Lighting Central Mids League Floodlit Cup Competition (that’s a name and a half), Graham Street Prims beat Woodhouse Colts by 4-1 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. The Prims have also been around for a while, formed by members of the Primitive Methodist Church in Graham Street in 1904. The club, based in the Spondon area of Derby, play in the same league as the Derby Singh Brothers. Are there really eleven brothers to field a team?
Pilgrims overcome Quakers
Sticking to a religious theme, Boston United, known affectionally as the Pilgrims, ended a poor run of form by surprisingly defeating Darlington 3-1 in the National League North clash on Saturday. The win takes Boston United out of the relegation spots and leaves the Quakers slipping further behind leaders AFC Fylde (featured last week) by four points. Liddle scored a late goal for Darlington, but the striker agreed that it Asda be a disappointing result.
Don’t shoot the messenger
Waltham Abbey were leading 1-0 against Cirencester Town with 20
minutes remaining in their Southern League Division One Central game. However, Reegan Messenger scored a well-struck goal following a corner to give Cirencester a 1-1 draw to keep them in contention for the playoff places. I would like to know whether anyone on the Cirencester bench would have preferred the young player to have passed rather than taking a shot and shouted, “Don’t shoot, Messenger”.
Hopping mad
News has arrived this week that groundhopping has become more organised and a growing business. There are organised tours, some of which are regionalised and others going to all points of the compass. Someone on Twitter referred to Fat Rophy as a groundhopper, but I’m not sure that following last year’s FA Trophy really means I can claim to be a groundhopper, as my route was in the lap of the Gods. I must confess that my visits to eleven different grounds meant that I had sampled some hops in local establishments, so perhaps, I can claim to be a groundhopper on that score.
Going Underground
Finally, the answer to last week’s quiz question. The Channel Island with a working underground tube train on it is remarkably enough Alderney. That’s it for this week. Please mind the gap.
