Your Tuesday FA Trophy Weekly Review is back. It’s the first issue of 2022 and comes with wishes of a Happy New Year to all our readers. This week, we explore wrecks and county teams. Read on.
The jury is out in the County Court
Two ties in the FA Trophy have caught my eye this week. It’s the two Counties – Notts County and Stockport County. Firstly, is there any football club
other than Notts County known formally by an abbreviation of its home town or city? Answers on a postcard, please. Notts County regularly draw an attendance of over 5,000 and pulled in almost 9,000 for the New Year victory over Wrexham. Stockport County attract similar crowds and also had just under 9,000 on Boxing Day when they faced Altrincham. Te visitors to Notts County in the FA Trophy will be National League’s Eastleigh, while our friends at Larkhall Athletic make the trip to Cheshire. Will the two Counties both make it to the 5th Round? They will start favourites, but get ready for an upset.
St Albans next
My journey from Hashtag United to Wembley has been a smooth process with one exception – the pronunciation of some of the teams I have encountered. When I saw Bishop’s Stortford play Leiston, I learnt that Leiston is pronounced more like ‘lay stun’. Next round, Bishop’s Stortford travelled to Cheshunt. Within minutes of arriving at Cheshunt, I was gently informed that Cheshunt has a ‘z’ in the middle – there’s no chess hunt, it’s ‘Chezunt’. Cheshunt now head to St Albans City in the 4th Round Proper. I am grateful to Larkhall Athletic, who were kind enough to tell me on Twitter that St Albans is pronounced ‘Snorbens’. I will, of course, check this for myself. However, this is valuable information, particularly as I fretted so much about the apostrophe in Bishop’s Stortford, only to learn later that everyone in Bishop’s Stortford calls the town Stortford – or, should I say, everyone in Stortford calls Stortford ‘Stortford’?
FA Cup check
Four Non-League teams have made it through to the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. Three have home ties. Yeovil Town entertain AFC Bournemouth on Saturday evening while Boreham Wood take on AFC Wimbledon in the afternoon. Kidderminster Harriers do not face an ‘AFC’ opponent as they face Reading. Chesterfield, who have leapt to the top of the National League, have a slightly tougher game – away to Chelsea! Surely, there will be a big upset there. For what it’s worth, Yeovil Town have twice knocked Bournemouth out of the FA Cup.
Wanna swap shirts?
Russ Penn’s Kidderminster Harriers will be looking forward to the challenge of facing AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup. Indeed, he played against Everton in 2013 when appearing for Cheltenham Town. He scored for Cheltenham but was on the losing side in a 5-1 defeat. After battling in midfield against Phil
Neville for 90 minutes, Penn asked Neville if he could have his shirt as a souvenir. Neville gladly obliged. However, Phil declined the offer of Penn’s shirt in return.
The FA Cup ‘four’ in the FA Trophy
After facing AFC Bournemouth from the Championship, Yeovil Town face Needham Market from the Southern League in the FA Trophy the following Saturday. Kidderminster Harriers were beaten 4-1 by Boston in the last round, and Chesterfield had to withdraw due to Covid cases, allowing Guiseley into the 4th Round to face Stourbridge. Boreham Wood won at Barnet in the 3rd Round; they now face Maidstone United.
Wrecks ‘em
When I attended Cheshunt’s victory over Bishop’s Stortford on penalties, I was lucky enough to witness Cheshunt’s first qualification for the 4th Round Proper of the FA Trophy. I had a couple of discussions with supporters after the game about the next opponents, and Wrexham away seemed to be the favoured choice, particularly as they regularly draw crowds of over 8,000. However, games played in Wales must be behind closed doors since Boxing Day, so maybe St Albans City is a safer bet. Unless, of course, Uncle Boris changes his mind, but he surely wouldn’t do that, would he?
Stortford wrecks ’em in New Year game
On New Year’s Day, Cheshunt travelled to Bishop’s Stortford in a League game. If you count Bishop’s Stortford’s loss to Cheshunt on penalties in the FA Trophy as technically a draw, both sides went into the game with undefeated runs of over 15 games. On the day, Bishop’s Stortford won 3-1. Having cruised into a 3-0 half-time lead, Cheshunt only hit back in the dying minutes. But, it’s Cheshunt who will be in the 4th Round Proper of the FA Trophy, so, arguably, honours are even. Bishop’s Stortford’s win lifted them into second place in the Isthmian Premier.
That’s all this week
This week it’s a shorter Weekly Review as I have only had a skeleton staff over the Christmas period. Mind you, I did employ people in their 90s, so it’s no wonder. Next week, I will be looking ahead to the 16 FA Trophy 4th Round Proper ties (I wish autocorrect would stop changing ‘Proper ties’ to ‘properties’). Catch you all then!
