The FA Sunday Cup blog

The FA Sunday Cup blog

Monday 22 November 2010

3rd Round Draw

Ties to be played on Sunday 12th December - 13:00 KO

Mariners v Alder
Huddersfield Irish Centre v Oyster Martyrs
Sunderland RCA Barnes v Sandstone
Hetton Lyons Cricket Club v Paddock
Eden Vale v Witton Park Rose & Crown or Queens Park
Lobster v Salisbury Athletic
FC Houghton Centre v Travellers
Comets Sports Club v Clumber
The Lounge v Britannia United
Belstone v Birstall Stamford
Hundred Acre v Kingshurst Sporting Club
Golden Lion v Club Lewsey
Bedfont Sunday v AC Sportsman & Ravensborough
FC Tripimeni-Aris v Northampton Duke Of York
Windmill or Knighton Arms v Hanham Sunday
Wonford United v Bluebird United

For me, the stand out tie is Huddersfield Irish v Oyster Martyrs and all being well, I'll be watching that one!

In the next few days, I'll post a review of the 2nd round and a top tips update. I'll also preview the 3rd round in early December.

Sunday 21 November 2010

2nd round scores

Here are the results from some of today's 2nd round games:

West Bowling 2 Mariners 5
Alder 4 Tower 2
Belt Road 2 Birstall Stamford 3
Kelloe WMC 2 Oyster Martyrs 3
Hetton Lyons 4 Brow 2
Salisbury Athletic 0 Poulton Royal 0 (SA won 4-2 on penalties)
Sunderland RCA Barnes 2 Derby Lane Gym 0
Dawdon Colliery Welfare 0 Paddock 3
Belstone 2 Nirankari Stevenage 0
Hanham Sunday 4 Lakeside Athletic 2
FC Tripimeni-Aris 4 Enfield Rangers 1
Fforde Greene 0 Sandstone 2
Huddersfield Irish 4 Hartlepool Lion 0

Postponed
Witton Park Rose & Crown v Queens Park

2nd round match report

This afternoon I went to see my local side, West Bowling (Bradford Sunday Alliance league champions and current holders of the West Riding County Sunday Cup) take on Mariners of the Ormskirk & District league.

West Bowling 2 Mariners 5

Mariners took to the field wearing the famous red & black strip of AC Milan and played some neat and attractive football, worthy of their more illustrious counterparts. They took the lead on 9 minutes, when a direct free kick on the edge of the Bowling 18 yard box, was slotted home by Sean Tierney, leaving the home team keeper rooted to the spot!

Bowling's equaliser came when winger Damien Melvin's cross picked out Chris Wood, who swept the ball home from close range. After what had been a reasonably even game, Bowling stepped up a gear and created several very presentable chances, which they failed to convert. HT 1-1 (although to be honest, it could have been 4-2 to the home side)

After being fortunate to go in on level terms at half time, Mariners started the 2nd half with a real purpose and were back in front just 4 minutes after the restart, when Sean Tierney found himself completely unmarked in the penalty area and drilled the ball home with ease.

Mariners made it 3-1 just 5 minutes later, when the Bowling keeper failed to collect a cross and Mariner's centre half, Mike White, scored from close range.

Things went from bad to worse for the home side, when Cory Larkin was shown the red card for an incident I failed to see, as the huge dugouts at Horsfall blocked my view!

Mariners Ryan Keyo, who had been impressive throughout then played a key role in most of what happened next. He was fouled in the box, which lead to a penalty being awarded (which was missed by John Cass - the follow up was then blazed over the bar!) Keyo then scored with an audacious lob from 30 yards out and after Bowling had scored a 2nd through Damien Melvin, Keyo then wrapped it up with a 5th near the end, to give Mariners a deserved win but will leave Bowling to rue those spurned chances late in the first half.

Saturday 13 November 2010

2nd Round Preview

With the 2nd round only a week away, here is a preview of some of the more eye catching ties:

Fforde Grene v Sandstone
Locking horns for the third season running, are Leeds Combination outfit Fforde Grene and Sandstone from the Liverpool and District league.

The luck of the draw has handed home advantage to Fforde’s every time, although their 3-1 third round victory in 2008 was at Chester City, following two postponements at Yorkshire Amateur. Fforde’s became the first Leeds team to reach the semi finals in over 40 years that season, when they lost 3-2 to Oyster Martyrs at Guiseley.

Sandstone gained their revenge in the first round last season, when they won 3-1 at Garforth Town.

So, with each team winning 3-1 on the other’s ground, home advantage has counted for very little!! I think the score line will be closer this time and the result could well be decided by a Dominic, as both sides have in form strikers with this name.

Dominic Blair’s goals were a key factor in Fforde’s 2008/09 run, including a brace in the game against Sandstone. He was also amongst the goals in the first round win at Red Lion. Dominic Grant’s hat trick secured Sandstone’s place in the 2nd round, as they overcame fellow Scouser’s Obiter.

Kelloe WMC v Oyster Martyrs

One of the standout ties of the round, it’s a shame that these two are meeting so early in the competition.

Oyster’s don’t find the North East an easy place to visit, as they needed penalties to edge past Murton Victoria of the Peterlee & District league in 2007, before losing 3-1 at Hetton Lyons in the next round.

Although they are more comfortable at home against Durham opposition, where they have beaten former winners Coundon Conservatives and Witton Park Rose and Crown (twice).

Kelloe had to battle from 2-0 down against North Riding County Cup winners South Bank in the preliminary round, before receiving a walkover in round 1.

I think this will be a close game with Oyster just shading it.

Hanham Sunday v Lakeside Athletic
Another contender for tie of the round, this pits the strongest sides left from the South West.

2009 semi finalists Lakeside had an impressive win in Bristol in the first round, when they beat Lebeqs Tavern Courage 2-0.

Lakeside will have to nullify the threat of Hanham’s free scoring Plummer’s if they want to progress to the 3rd round. Former England U18 international Tristan Plummer scored four in the first round 11-1 demolition of Applebys from Torbay. Ex Bristol Rovers striker Niekel Plummer bagged a brace while Twaine Plummer weighed in with one.

So, Lakeside will need a watertight defence to keep Hanham’s Plummer’s redundant!!

Clumber v Magnet Tavern
Prolific striker Jaylee Hodgson is Clumber’s main goal threat. Brereton Town found him too hot to handle in their first round encounter, as Hodgson banged in 4 goals in Clumber’s 7-0 win. He was also amongst the goals for Heanor Town at the start of this season, before moving up the pyramid to Long Eaton United and then to Rainworth Miners Welfare.

Magnet Tavern are certainly coping well with the loss of their successful manager, John Chand, as they are unbeaten in 6 games this season and have scored 43 goals, whilst only conceding 4.

I think this will be a close game with the Sunday Cup know how of Magnet Tavern tipping the balance in their favour.

Hundred Acre v Blue Mugge
This all Midlands clash should be an intriguing watch, as Blue Mugge had an impressive win in the 1st round, which had Dave Hillier (manager of their opponents R.H.P. Sports and Social) stating “we were given a footballing lesson and, in all honesty, it was a pleasure to watch. It shows us what we have to aspire to in this competition in the years to come.”

The Newark Advertiser also reported that Blue Mugge fielded 5 players from Northern Premier league outfit Kidsgrove Athletic and were captained by Jimmy McCarthy, who plays in the Blue Square Premier for Altrincham.

However, Hundred Acre (if you can pardon the pun) are clearly no mugs themselves, after thrashing Barwell Sports 7-1. Top scoring with a hat-trick, was Hundred Acre’s player/coach, Paul Devlin, the former Scotland International, who made over 500 professional appearances in 14 years, most notably for Notts County, Birmingham City and Sheffield United. With 9 goals in 6 games, the 38 year old Devlin is the man Blue Mugge need to keep quiet if they are to progress.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

The long and the short of it

Fans of the competition will no doubt be familiar with some of the more unusual names of current and former entrants. Even the FA have commented about this on their website.

However, an interesting observation that does seem to have gone unreported, is that teams from Liverpool typically prefer as short a team name as possible, whilst our friends in the North East tend to opt for the longest of names, as demonstrated below:

Merseyside
Lobster
Fantail
Eagle
Avenue
Almithak
Nicosia
Seymour
Allerton
Canada
Melrose
Newfield
Salerno
Canon
Sandon
Britannia
Dock
Mitre
Napoli
Boundary
Woodpecker
Falcon
Pelican
Alder
Mariners
Paddock
Barry’s
Harry’s

Some Scouse sides even prefer initials, so they can minimise the number of letters even more, such as:

BRNESC
JOB
A3
N.U.R.5

North East
Langley Park Rams Head
Humbledon Plains Farm
Hartlepool Lion Hotel
Hetton Lyons Cricket Club
Coundon Conservative Club
Winlaton West End
Newbiggin Sports Centre
Dudley & Weetslade
Shildon Elm Road WMC
Esh Winning Pineapple
Willington Belle Vue
Peterlee Moorcock
Cramlington Benedictine
Framwellgate Moor & Pity Me WMC
Shankhouse United
Stockton Roseworth Social
Witton Park Rose & Crown
Sunderland RCA Barnes
Blyth Waterloo Social Club
Horton Three Horse Shoes
Crook Old Horse Shoe
Morpeth St Georges
Ashington Excelsior
Boldon Shack Social
Dawdon Colliery Welfare

So, if a team with a short name plays a team with a long name, you can expect to hear plenty of Liverpudlian and Geordie/Durham accents!!

Or if you prefer a more exotic sounding name, you need to head down south:

London & Home Counties
Nirankari Sports Sabha – Stevenage
AFC Kumazi Strikers – London
FC Tripimeni-Aris – London
Kerria Sports – London
Ouzavich – London
Venceremos – Middlesex