If any of you have ever watched “Survivor” you will know that near the end, once the competition has been reduced to the finalists, they reminisce over the other contestants have been backstabbed and lied out of the game.
The FA Cup this season may be low on the backstabbing and lying quotient – better left to the Premiership – but a lot of teams have fallen by the way since the Extra Preliminary Round was held last August.
A little under 700 clubs entered the competition and now it is down to the top two teams in England to battle it out for the FA Cup. But rather than focusing on Chelsea and Manchester United, now is the chance to look back at some of the teams that took part in the competition.
The majority of the extra preliminary round games got underway on August 18 of last year. I randomly chose the game between Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association and Billingham Synthonia and to follow the winner until they were knocked out and then continue with their conqueror.
Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association made it through to the First Qualifying Round beating Billingham Synthonia 5-2 and Thackley F.C. 5-4. According to the FA Cup website the first round win by Jarrow was the upset of the round.
Both Jarrow and Billingham Synthonia played in the Arngrove Northern League Division 1 and although Jarrow won the FA Cup game, Synthonia finished well above them in the league. The teams finished 7th and 15th respectively out of 21 teams. Thackley F.C. finished third from bottom of the Northern Counties East Football League Premier Division and only avoided relegation by one point.
Fleetwood Town dispatched Jarrow 3-0 and made it through the next three rounds beating Goole AFC 4-2, Warrington Town 2-0 and Wisbech Town by the same score. Fleetwood finished 8th in the Unibond League while Goole AFC were 7th in the league below. Playing in the same division as Goole AFC, Warrington Town were fifteen spots lower at 22nd.
Wisbech Town of the Ridgeons Premier League (Eastern Counties) settled in a mid-table position. Salisbury City of the Nationwide Conference South took care of Fleetwood Town in the First Round 3-0 and earned a second round tie against former European Cup holders Nottingham Forest. After a 1-1 tie, Forest won the replay 2-0.
However, it has turned out to be another successful season for Salisbury under the management of former Southampton FA Cup winner Nick Holmes. They gained their second straight promotion. Last season they moved up from the Southern League Premier Division and next season they will be in the Conference National after winning the play-off final.
Forest went on to pull off one of the shocks of the third round when they comfortably beat Charlton Athletic 2-0. It was traumatic season for Charlton that finished with relegation to the Championship.
Forest then drew Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and from that point on it was all Chelsea. They beat Forest 3-0, Norwich City 4-0, Tottenham 2-1 in a replay after a fantastic 3-3 draw, and finally saw Blackburn Rovers off 2-1 in extra time in the semi final.
Forest are currently embroiled in the League One play offs – they beat Yeovil 2-0 in the first leg of the semi and the second leg is May 18. Norwich City could do no better than 16th in the Championship while Tottenham had to again settle for 5th in the Premiership. Blackburn saw their form slip late in the season and eventually finished 10th.
So there you are five degrees of separation between the multi millionaires of Chelsea and Billingham Synthonia who lost the extra preliminary round game nine months ago in front of a crowd of 67 paying spectators. On Saturday we will find out if the FA Cup conforms to 6 degrees of separation when the Cup Final is played out in front of 90,000 spectators and a TV audience in the tens of millions.
What was the best game you saw this season in the FA Cup and what individual performance stands out in your mind?
The FA Cup First Round goes this weekend and we now have teams from League One and Two entering the competition. We started off six rounds ago with a game between Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association and Billingham Synthonia. Jarrow stuck around for two rounds before making way for Fleetwood Town of the Unibond Premier League. Fleetwood has prospered over the four rounds (all at home) and now face Salisbury City.
Salisbury has beaten VTFC 3-0 and Eastleigh and Fisher Athletic by a score of 1-0. All three games were away from home for Salisbury City. Salisbury City currently leads the Nationwide Conference South and have been made 8/13 favourites to move on to the Second Round and if successful they will also pocket around $30,000 - from the FA not the bookies.
Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports World Canada coverage of the 2006/07 FA Cup gets underway. Canadian viewers can also catch the FA Cup preview on Saturday at 9:00 p.m. (EST).
Featured Games to date. Extra Preliminary Round Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A. 5-2 Billingham Synthonia. Preliminary Round Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A 5-4 Thackley F.C First Qualifying Round Fleetwood Town 3-0 Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A. Second Qualifying Round Fleetwood Town 4-2 Goole AFC Third Qualifying Round Fleetwood Town 2-0 Warrington Town Fourth Qualifying Round Fleetwood Town 2-0 Wisbech Town
Fleetwood Town faces Warrington Town in the Third Qualifying Round of the FA Cup tomorrow October 14. WE have covered how Fleetwood has arrived at this stage in earlier blogs and they look to be favourites to move on again.
Warrington Town has beaten Yorks Amet 5-1, Long Eaton United 3-1 (both away from home) then needed a replay and extra time to beat Kendal Town 3-2 after an initial 1-1 draw at Kendal.
Warrington Town plays in UniBond First Division – the same league as Fleetwood’s opponents in the previous round Goole AFC. Warrington is currently five points below Goole but with two games less played.
Fleetwood plays at one level above in the UniBond Premier Division and they sit just above halfway. Richard Allen looks to be the man for Warrington Town to watch considering he has already scored 12 goals this season already.
Scores so far. Extra Preliminary Round Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A. 5-2 Billingham Synthonia. Preliminary Round Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A 5-4 Thackley F.C First Qualifying Round Fleetwood Town 3-0 Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A. Second Qualifying Round Fleetwood Town 4-2 Goole AFC
Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association were involved in an absolutely cracker on Saturday when they came back from 3-0 down after only 10 minutes to beat Thackley FC 5-4. The match report can be found here.
Jarrow Roofing Boldon C.A. now play away against Fleetwood Town in the FA First Round Qualifying on September 16 - not to be confused with the First Round that doesn't take place until November 11. There are four qualifying rounds before we get to the first round proper.
The Preliminary Round of the 2006/07 FA Cup is set for this weekend with 268 teams fighting for a place in the First Round Qualifying in two weeks time. We started with the match-up between Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association and Billingham Synthonia that was won by Jarrow 5-2 in front of a reported 67 paying spectators.
Some background on Thackley – “Thackley F.C. are a football club based in Bradford. They were established in 1930 and joined the Yorkshire League Division Two in 1967”.
Thackley beat Ramsbotton FC 1-0 in a replay before a crowd off 77 after a 1-1 draw in the Extra Preliminary Round.
The winner will play Fleetwood Town on September 16 in the First Round Qualifying.
Here goes with week #2. There was no shortage of topics last week and it does not look as if the pace will slacken anytime soon. This is the place to post your questions or thoughts on any subject – except why isn’t your team on FSC – and I will do my best to respond later in the week.
I am also including links to a couple of articles I read over the weekend which you might find interesting.
The Sunday Times ran a story over the weekend about Premiership players storing their children’s stem cells as a potential source of treatment for their own career ending injuries.
In light of the Ben Thatcher attack on Pedro Mendez last week Rob Hughes takes a look at the “Rise of the Elbow” in the game.
Roy Keane’s dramatic return was the inspiration for this article which was written by Simon Barnes last Friday.
You can also enter the FSC Talent Challenge over at http://fantasy.foxsoccer.com . I understand that we provide the FSC and challenge parts and you provide the talent.
Once you have logged in and entered your team, click on the 'My Leagues' link you can find on the left of the page. Then enter the code 24-176 to join the FSC Talent Challenge League.
Later this week I should have a preview of the next round of the FA Cup so you can check on the next opponents of Jarrow Roofing Boldon Coomunity Association after their Extra Preliminary Round win over Billingham Synthonia a couple of weeks ago.
I am also planning a preview of the qualifying groups for Euro 2008 which really gets underway this coming weekend.
And once again thanks to all of you who take the time to visit and post.
The FA Cup site did not have all the results but I found out that Jarrow’s opponents will not be known until after a replay on Tuesday. Thackley and Ramsbottom United played to a 1-1 draw in front of 80 people on Saturday.
The FA Cup is not just one of the most renowned sporting trophies in the world but also of the most copied in terms of format. Since the first tournament in 1871-72 the knock out format has become one of the most recognized systems for deciding sporting champions. However, the competition did not get off to the most au####ious of starts. In the book “The FA Cup The Complete Story” by Guy Lloyd and Nick Holt the first competition is described as a shambles. There were numerous walkovers with Scottish club Queen’s Park making it all the way to the semi final without kicking a ball. After drawing the semi final 0-0 Queen’s Park had to withdraw as they couldn’t cover the cost of the replay against Wanderers. Wanderers went on to beat Royal Engineers 1-0 in the final.
Other oddities from the first final include:
Players were distinguished by their cap or garters rather than by their jerseys.
Throw-ins were taken one-handed.
The only field markings were the touchlines.
Teams changed ends each time a goal was scored.
Despite the problematic start the FA Cup prospered until the arrival of the Premiership in the early 1990’s. Since then the glamour of the event has been dealt numerous blows, often from the Premiership clubs treating it as an inconvenience – unless of course they had nothing better to play for!
However, anyone who saw last seasons FA Cup final between Liverpool and West Ham United can vouch for the fact that there is life in the old competition yet - and not only in the late stages of the competition. It is the magnitude of the competition and the “David vs. Goliath” contests that the random draw routinely throws-up that is the real magic.
You can read more about Jarrow – founded 1987 – at their website highlighted above.
Billingham Synthonia has a more extensive history having been formed in 1923 but I could not find a dedicated website. According to a wiki entry - “Synthonia have at least two unique records, the only Football Club in Great Britain named after an agricultural fertilizer and the only Northern League side to play an entire season without conceding a home goal. Connected with ICI Billingham until 1994 when the ground was sold to new owners, the club shortened its name from Synthetic Ammonia, one of ICI’s main products. Synthonia’s second distinction came in the 1950-51 season when they played 13 home league games, winning 12 and drawing one, with a goal tally of 44 for and none against. This was achieved with Goalkeeper Harry Armstrong saving a last minute penalty in the final game of the season.”
Apparently the great Brian Clough was a former player in the 1950’s.
Both clubs play in the Arngrove Northern League Division 1 which is rated step 5/6 in the English pyramid system. The Northern League is touted as the second oldest football league in the world having been formed in 1889.
I also discovered that the company that sponsors the league – the Albany Group – is owned by none other than Brooks Mileson the owner of Gretna. Mileson has guaranteed sponsorship of the league through his lifetime and through his sons’ lifetime by way of a trust.
If anyone can shed anymore light on the two teams it would be appreciated.
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
Thank you to all who take time to visit this blog and especially to those of you who post your comments and thoughts.
PS - If you have questions please post them on the regular Monday blog. I am unable to answer e mails posted to the inbox on this site.
And one more thing. If you have questions or complaints or compliments about programming please contact Fox Soccer Channel or Fox Sports World Canada directly. I have no control over what the stations televise.
