The FA Cup Thread 2024

[Trollheart]

Team name: Crawley Town
Home city or town: Crawley
Area: West Sussex
Nickname: The Red Devils
Home ground: Broadfield Stadium
Manager: Rob Elliot
Currently playing in: EFL League 1
Tier: 4
First opponent in Round One: Taunton or Maidenhead
Highest position achieved:
Giant Killing(s) Derby County (2-1, 2010); Bristol City and Hull City (both 1-0, 2012); Leeds United (3-0, 2021)
Best FA Cup run: Fourth round
Rivals: AFC Wimbledon, Sutton United

Delusions of grandeur, I would say, considering the nickname! Well at least they've been around, founded in 1896, but they're another team for whom the new millennium was not a good time, going into administration in 1999, but luckily for them, only spending two months there before the club was bought. A decision in 2005 to go professional seems to have coincided with a really bad turn in the club's fortunes. Some of the players literally had to quit because they could not afford to, as they say, give up the day job, and results began to suffer. League position dropped, and so did wages as they were slashed in half, precipitating the exit of more players, and though they managed to avoid relegation, they fell foul of the other -ation, administration.

They were only days from being wound-up for good when an offer came through, though the former chairman was later jailed for tax fraud. I don't think it related to the club, but still, criminals everywhere huh? Last minute rescue seemed to reinvigorate the club, and they stormed up the league. Oh no wait, they didn't. They did all right for a few games but then fell back on losing ways, sliding down the table, but with new investment they were soon at the top of League 2. It wouldn't last of course. Never does. Not sure if this is a record, but Crawley's new manager, signed on 12 May 2019, left two months later, having taken charge for exactly zero games. Can't have helped confidence, now can it?

And while a previous team's manager died in service, this time an ex-manager seems to have taken his own life, as Dermot Drummy, sacked after a year in the job, was found dead six months later. Whether his suicide had anything to do with his time at the club or not, I don't know. Sad though. Another manager was fired for racist behaviour, later banned from football until 2026 when the charges were proven. Yet another manager left after a staggering 34 days in charge!

I must say, when I saw them in the table I thought "Crawley Town? I'll have a few lines to write about them, maybe make a joke about insects, that'll be it." I did not expect to end up writing so much. It was interesting though.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Crewe Alexandra
Home city or town: Crewe
Area: Cheshire
Nickname: The Railwaymen, The Alex
Home ground: Gresty Road
Manager: Lee Bell
Currently playing in: EFL League 2
Tier: 4
First opponent in Round One: Dagenham and Redbridge
Highest position achieved: Championship
Giant Killing(s) Chelsea (2-1, 1961)
Best FA Cup run: Semi-finals
Rivals: Port Vale, Shrewsbury Town, Salford City, Wrexham, Stoke City, Macclesfield, Chester City, Tranmere Rovers, Stockport County, Chester City

I don't know why, but I also thought Crewe Alexandra were a Welsh team! Founded in 1877, it was over a century later before Crewe began to find any sort of proper form, rising to the second tier of English football, the Championship, where they remained a fixture for eight years from 1997. The club became something of a factory producing later players for England, including Danny Murphy and David Platt. Not bad for a team who, from Christmas Day of 1954, embarked on a staggering 56-game streak where they failed to win away even once! This unwanted record took two years to break.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Curzon Ashton
Home city or town: Ashton-under-Lyne
Area: Greater Manchester
Nickname: The Nash
Home ground: Tameside Stadium
Manager: Craig Mahon
Currently playing in: National League North
Tier: 6
First opponent in Round One: Mansfield Town
Highest position achieved: Current
Giant Killing(s) Exeter City (3-2, 2009)
Best FA Cup run: Second round
Rivals: Unknown

Even younger than our previous "baby team", Curzon Ashton were only formed in 1963, and where the Curzon part comes from I can't tell you. Can I? Yes. Yes I can. It's the name of a road in Ashton-under-Lyne. Okay then. Seems the team has something of a record with managers, hiring and firing no less than four in a year! The gulf in leagues though becomes evident when I read that in 1999 - 2000 Curzon Ashton were promoted to division 1 of the First North Western TRAINS League! I mean, come on! To paraphrase Homer Simpson: "That's not the Premiership! That's not even the Northern Premier League!" 

From 2017 on though they seem to have started to come up through the real leagues, gaining promotion after promotion until they now stand at the peak of their achievement, feeling vertigo no doubt as they reach the National League North.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Dagenham & Redbridge
Home city or town: Dagenham
Area: Greater London
Nickname: The Daggers
Home ground: Victoria Road
Manager: Ben Strevens
Currently playing in: National League
Tier: 5
First opponent in Round One: Crewe Alexandra
Highest position achieved: EFL League 1
Giant Killing(s) None
Best FA Cup run: Fourth round
Rivals: Unknown

No I'm wrong: this is the baby, only formed in 1992! That means Dagenham & Redbridge have only been in existence for 32 years. As you probably worked out, they're a merger of two clubs, but as you may not have known, they're actually technically made up of five! Dagenham and Redbridge Forest merged in 1992, but the latter had already been made up of three clubs: Ilford, Leytonstone and Walthamstow Avenue. Well I see those three teams had at least been around since the 19th century, so there is some pedigree there, even if the current club is little more than an embryo. Dagenham itself was formed in 1949 and Redbridge Forest in 1979.

Why did they merge? Well, lack of cash due to nobody coming to see them seems to have been the main one. Dagenham & Redbridge (let's just call them Dagenham for the sake of simplicity) played most of their career in the National Legaue, where they are now, and did well. 2002 saw them  almost champions. In fact, they should have been. Beaten by Boston United, that team were then deemed to have indulged in that old chestnut seemingly beloved of football clubs everywhere, financial irregularities, and were docked points, which would have left Dagenham top. But for some reason the league decided the points would be applied to the previous season, not that one, so Dagenham were cheated. Must have been looking daggers at Boston. Sorry.

After that, and possibly because of that, to quote Marvin, the Paranoid Android, they went into a bit of a decline, sliding down the table, but gamely fought on and achieved the coveted top spot in 2007, earning promotion to the EFL for the first time ever. They had a really good run there, lasting eight years, during which they progressed from League 2 to League 1, but only lasted the one season before being relegated back to League 2.

I've had a look, but as far as I can see Dagenham were not involved in the famous match-fixing scandal of 2013, though one of the fixers did say they could influence one of their matches. That never happened, and I don't see any Dagenham staff having been arrested or charged, but it makes interesting reading. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_English_football_match-fixing_scandal

[Trollheart]

Team name: Doncaster Rovers
Home city or town: Doncaster
Area: South Yorkshire
Nickname: Rovers
Home ground: Eco-power Stadium
Manager: Grant McCann
Currently playing in: EFL League 2
Tier: 4
First opponent in Round One: Barrow
Highest position achieved: Championship
Giant Killing(s) None
Best FA Cup run: Never qualified
Rivals: Rotherham United, Barnsley, Sheffield United, Scunthorpe United, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds United, Chesterfield, Mansfield Town, Grimsby, Nottingham Forest, Bradford City

Har har! Doesn't their crest look like a sweeping brush and pan! Cleaning up, eh? Sorry; it really does look like that to me on first glance. Anyway, it's been a struggle for Doncaster, who lost their place in the then second division in 1948, and spent the next five decades trying to get back, which they finally achieved in 2003. They made it to the Championship in 2008 and spent four non-consecutive seasons there, being relegated, promoted, relegated, promoted.

The club was formed in 1879 and is another, like Crewe Alexandra, with strong links to the local railways, as it was one of their staff who founded the club. I have to say, it's funny to hear that he did so in order to take on the Yorkshire Institute for the Deaf! I mean, how are these people supposed to have heard the whistle? Or "On the 'ead, son!" Or indeed, any instructions? Lends new meaning to the phrase "Are ye blind, ref?" Yeah I know: I'm going to Hell. Already got my ticket booked, don't worry.

Okay look, I tend to skim through the early periods of football clubs' success - I don't particularly care if they were relegated from, say, The Young Gentlemen's League 2* to its lower league in 1919 or whatever - but if I come across an amusing story you can bet I'll tell it. And this is amusing. Seems back in the 1940s the rule was that a game went on, literally, until someone won. No limit. So when Doncaster played Stockport County on March 30 1946, with the score tied at 2-2, and neither team able to break the deadlock after 20 minutes extra time, well, the match went on. As it began to get dark, so the account says, spectators went home, had their tea, and came back to watch. The match was still going on! 203 minutes in all, but had to be stopped because there was, well, no light to see the ball by. 203 minutes! Think about that. That's over twice the time a normal match runs for today, without extra time. It is, in fact, a match played twice, with 23 minutes extra time! In the end, Doncaster won the replay 4-0. Guess men was hardier back in them days.

And it doesn't stop there! Now we have criminal damage and intimidation, as Ken Richards, described by police as "the type of man who would trample a two-year old child to pick up a tuppenny bit" (two pennies) took over, but when his plans for a new stadium were refused, he hired men to torch the old one! Off to jail he went, for four years, but the damage was done. Doncaster fell out of the league, went into administration, and blamed Richards for the death of the club, even holding a mock funeral, complete with coffin, on the last day of the season when they were relegated.

The new millennium, however, was a new dawn, or if you will, given the imagery above, a rebirth for Doncaster Rovers. They were taken over by a new firm, who invested heavily and built them a new stadium, and their fortunes began to turn. They got back into the EFL and began winning trophies, making it into the Championship in 2008, spending most of the next decade there.

* Made up, so far as I know.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Exeter City
Home city or town: Exeter
Area: Devon
Nickname: The Grecians
Home ground: St. James Park (yeah, another one)
Manager: Gary Caldwell
Currently playing in: EFL League 1
Tier: 4
First opponent in Round One: Barnet
Highest position achieved: Current
Giant Killing(s) None
Best FA Cup run: Third round
Rivals: Plymouth Argyle

Formed in 1901, Exeter City certainly had high expectations, being the first English team to tour South America in 1914, and also the first to play a Brazilian team. Guess they weren't fighting in the Great War, then. Might be why they had to get out of Dodge. Hmm. Hard to be drafted when you're several thousand miles away. Anyway, it seems that Exeter City are another team that came about from a merger, but different this time, as both Exeter United F.C. and St. Sidwell's United fought out a 3-1 victory for the latter in 1904, and decided the best thing to do was team up, literally, and become Exeter City.

More financial hi-jinks as one of the directors of the club went to manage at Her Majesty's Pleasure for fraudulent trading, while the other got off with a community sentence. Exeter avoided going into administration when their supporters' trust took over the running of the club, but the team were still relegated to the National League. In 2004 they invited their old muckers the national Brazil team over for a kickabout, to celebrate the club's centenary. Must have been quite a money spinner for a club who desperately needed cash. In 2008 they made their way back into the EFL.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Forest Green Rovers
Home city or town: Nailsworth
Area: Gloucestershire
Nickname: The Green, Rovers, Green Army, Black and White Army
Home ground: The New Lawn
Manager: Steve Cotterill
Currently playing in: National League
Tier: 5
First opponent in Round One: Stockport County
Highest position achieved: EFL League 1
Giant Killing(s) Rotherham United (3-0, 2008)
Best FA Cup run: Third round
Rivals: Cheltenham Town, Gloucester City, Bath City, Bristol Rovers, Swindon Town, Newport County

Another club founded by a churchman, this one a Peach (Reverend E.J.H., to be exact), Forest Green were formed in 1889 and became Forest Green Rovers four years later. Oddly enough, 100 years after their founding the club were renamed Stroud Football Club, but this change only lasted a few years and they reverted to Forest Green Rovers, a name they have kept since.

In 2018 they became the only football club in the world to be certified carbon neutral, thanks in the main to the new ownership, which pushed eco-friendly values. At least that means they earned the "green" part of their name. FIFA recognises them as "the greenest team in the world". One more point of interest: Forest Green are, to date, the only football club in England to have a female manager, when Hannah Dingley took over in 2023. Doesn't seem like she lasted, but still, way to blaze a trail, girl!

[Trollheart]

Team name: Gainsborough Trinity
Home city or town: Gainsborough
Area: Lincolnshire
Nickname: Trinity, The Holy Blues
Home ground: The Northolme
Manager: Russ Wilcox
Currently playing in: Northern Premier League
Tier: 6
First opponent in Round One: Hednesford or Gateshead **++
Highest position achieved:National League
Giant Killing(s) Crewe Alexandra (3-1, 1929, and again in 1932); Port Vale (1938); Gateshead (1939)
Best FA Cup run: Second round
Rivals: Boston United, Worksop Town,

What is it with the Church in the late nineteenth century? Was every vicar, priest and reverend going around thinking "I must set up a football club!"? Here we are with another one, Gainsborough having been founded in 1873, which I think makes them, so far, the oldest team we've looked at? Must check back when I can be bothered.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Gateshead
Home city or town: Gateshead
Area: Tyne & Wear
Nickname: The Tynesiders, The Heed
Home ground: Gateshead International Stadium
Manager: Carl Magnay
Currently playing in: National League
Tier: 5
First opponent in Round One: Gainsborough Trinity or Boston United **++
Highest position achieved: Current
Giant Killing(s) None
Best FA Cup run: Third round
Rivals: Unknown

Originally formed as South Shields Adelaide in 1899, money worries saw the club fold in 1973 and reformed as Gateshead United in 1974. They only lasted a few years before being dissolved and the new Gateshead Football Club emerged in 1977. So, technically a young club but with an old history if you like to trace it back. Old or young, seems every club has trouble with money, and Gateshead's financial woes led to them being demoted in 2019 to the Northern Premier League. They didn't have to stay there long though, earning promotion back to the National League the next season.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Gillingham
Home city or town: Gillingham
Area: Kent
Nickname: The Gills
Home ground: Priestfield Stadium
Manager: Mark Bonner
Currently playing in: EFL League 2
Tier: 4
First opponent in Round One: Blackpool
Highest position achieved: Championship
Giant Killing(s) None
Best FA Cup run: Can't see that they ever qualified
Rivals: It seems they don't have any real rivals, but there's tension between them and Millwall, Fulham, Maidstone United and Swindon Town

Founded in 1893 as New Brompton F.C., the club changed its name to Gillingham (the G is soft, as in "jill", not as in "gill") in 1913. They could probably be called "The Strugglers", as they were ejected from the Football League in 1938 after 18 seasons without success. Another amusing story to relate: after all the talk of transfer records, it seems Gillingham signed future Ireland star Tony Cascarino for... a bunch of tracksuits! I bet that made him feel valued!

In 1995 that old bugbear, financial difficulties, raised its head, and in fact opened its mouth to swallow Gillingham whole. They went into administration, and faced being shut down entirely before a London businessman stepped in to save them. The manager he hired though, Tony Pulis, was later sacked for "gross misconduct". I can't see any further details.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Grimsby Town
Home city or town: Cleethorpes
Area: Lincolnshire
Nickname: The Mariners
Home ground: Blundell Park
Manager: David Artell
Currently playing in: EFL League 2
Tier: 4
First opponent in Round One: Wealdstone
Highest position achieved: Premier League, though not really. It was the old Division One at the time, and in the 1930s.
Giant Killing(s) Liverpool (2-1, 2002) Southampton (2-1, 2023)
Best FA Cup run: Semi-final
Rivals: Hull City, Scunthorpe United, Lincoln City

Strange thing about the 1930s: seems that if a player got injured and had to be taken off, he could not be substituted. So when the keeper was hurt in one of Grimsby's matches and couldn't continue, they had to play with ten men, one of whom had to take the goalie's place. Not surprisingly, they lost the match 5-0. Grimsby were the first English club to appoint a foreign manager, bringing a Hungarian in in 1954, while one of their chairmen would go on to become president of FIFA.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Guiseley
Home city or town: Guiseley
Area: West Yorkshire
Nickname: The Lions
Home ground: Nethermoor Park
Manager: Mark Bower
Currently playing in: Northern Premier League
Tier: 6
First opponent in Round One: Stevenage
Highest position achieved: National League
Giant Killing(s) Accrington Stanley (well, they were giants to them!) (4-3, 2018); Cambridge United (4-3, 2019)
Best FA Cup run: Second round
Rivals: Unknown

Really almost nothing I can tell you about these guys, other than they were relatively successful for a time, founded in 1909, but their Wiki page is mostly drowning in statistics, and not terribly interesting ones. They did beat upper tier (to them) opposition twice in the FA Cup, but while we're here, let's consider the hilarity that the non-league teams who don't or can't compete in that competition can qualify for their own one, called - wait for it - the FA Vase! I find that so funny. Oh, you can't have a cup - you're amateurs, part-timers. A vase? Yeah sure, why not.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Harborough Town
Home city or town: Market Harborough
Area: Leicestershire
Nickname: The Bees
Home ground: Bowden Park
Manager: Mitch Austin
Currently playing in: Southern League Premier Central
Tier: 7
First opponent in Round One: Tonbridge Angels
Highest position achieved: Current
Giant Killing(s) None
Best FA Cup run: Only qualified this year
Rivals: Unknown

We have a winner in the baby stakes! Harborough Town appear only to have been founded in 2008, after a merger with Spencer United. Originally though, they can trace their hoary old history all the way back to... 1975. Wow. I've not yet come across a team that only came into existence in this century, never mind fifteen years ago. I will hazard a guess that, given that they're currently playing at tier 7, there isn't going to be a whole lot to say about them.

No, there isn't. In fact, this is the very first year they've qualified for the FA Cup. All their other statistics are about regional leagues, for which I care not one jot, sir. Hey, at least they have a cool crest! Looks like the Amityville house on top of a football. Right. Let me then concentrate on a poor joke at the expense of an innocent club they played called Antsey Nomads. Sounds like bedouins with itching powder in their - what? It's ANSTEY Nomads? Ah, still a good joke. You, sir, are no fun any more. 🙁

[Trollheart]

Team name: Harrogate Town
Home city or town: Harrogate
Area: West Yorkshire
Nickname: The Sulphurites (Talk about the Red Devils! Sorry)
Home ground: Wetherby Road
Manager: Simon Weaver
Currently playing in: EFL League 2
Tier: 4
First opponent in Round One: Wrexham
Highest position achieved: Current
Giant Killing(s) Torquay United (1-0, 2012)
Best FA Cup run: Third round
Rivals: Unknown

Hey, this is interesting. The chairman and the manager have the same surname. Father and son? Let's see. Yep, father and son, but at least it seems our Simon got the job before his father was made chairman, so no accusations of nepotism there. Unless it's the other way around, which I guess is still nepotism. These nepots, I tell ya! They're everywhere! Given the nickname of the team, and their location, going to take a stab in the dark and say this was a mining town? Hmm. Doesn't say, but they did play South Kirkby Colliery in 1919, so I would think I'm on the right track there.

Originally formed as Harrogate Hotspurs in 1919, having previously been known as Harrogate AFC United in 1914 until that pesky four-year round of pushing and shoving known as World War I interrupted proceedings, they renamed themselves after the War to End All Wars did precisely not that, and in fact spawned an even greater (or worse) one. After Hitler had been defeated and either shot himself in the head or escaped to Argentina, depending on your own personal level of gullibility, the Harrogate Hotspurs became Harrogate Town, and a legend was not born. Tottenham must have breathed a sigh of relief.

Time for another tasteless joke to pass the time and allow me to fill in some pointless column inches, as it were. It says in 1976 Harrogate fielded their first ever black player (well, it says a first ever, but I doubt he was the first in English football at this point), but sure, down pit aren't all the lads black? Okay, I'll get me coat. Oh look! They even installed floodlights! Who did they think they were, Manchester United?

Look, I have nothing against them, and I don't think they're in the Cup this year, but every second entry I make I read about fucking Torquay United! I thought the most famous thing about Torquay was a certain television show about a hotel, but it seems that, one way or another, their football team keeps popping up like a game of whack-a-mole! Weird. Right, more silly humour. I misread a line that said someone joined the board to help "promote community links" and thought it said "community kinks". I immediately had visions of wife-swapping parties, people in rubber and leather and chains and... you know what? Let's just cut off this particular avenue of thought, shall we? There may be kids reading.

As Michael Corleone sighed, I keep tryin' to get out, they keep draggin' me back in! Now I see the 2011-2012 season ended in a dogfight! Aren't they illegal? Or was it a case of Sopwith Camels at dawn? Oh, I see: relegation dogfight. No biplanes then. Or dogs. Jesus Christ making a last-minute save before the whistle! There they are again! Fucking Torquay United! Seems Harrogate beat them in the FA Cup. Basil would not have been happy, though he probably preferred to watch cricket. And listen to Bach's 3rd Racket.

Oh this is funny. Near the end of the 2016-17 season, as the team dropped into a bad slump, for some reason the directors thought going professional would give the players the incentive they needed to do better (presumably with better wages as professional players), but in fact most of the team left, unable to hold down a job at the club and down pit, or in factory, or office, or wherever. Talk about a plan backfiring!  Still, the players that stayed and the new ones brought in did the business, and up went the team to the staggering heights of the EFL. Nice.

Harrogate also bore witness to football history when a game they played was the first in which a woman officiated as a referee, though of course they themselves had nothing to do with the choice. Wow. I wrote a whole lot more about this team that I had expected I would. Admittedly, most of it is drivel - what do you mean, no change there then? Charming.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Hartlepool United
Home city or town: Hartlepool
Area: County Durham
Nickname: Pools, Monkey Hangers (wait, what?)
Home ground: Victoria Park
Manager: Lennie Lawrence (interim)
Currently playing in: National League
Tier: 5
First opponent in Round One: Braintree **++
Highest position achieved: EFL League 2
Giant Killing(s) Crystal Palace (1-0, 1993)
Best FA Cup run: Fourth round
Rivals: Darlington, Sheffield Wednesday, Carlisle United, Rushden & Diamonds (RIP), Sunderland

Founded in 1908 as the rather grand-sounding Hartlepools United Football & Athletic Club Company Ltd., they didn't last long, going into liquidation two years later, and taken over by the much shorter and snappier Hartlepools United. Which lasted until 1965 when they dropped the plural and became Hartlepool United.

I guess you have to feel for them: relegated after 96 years in the Football League! That's some record, and with that sort of pedigree, they weren't going to stay out of it for long, returning in 2021, though they only lasted two seasons there. Oh for the love of... Torquay United again! Can I not turn around without encountering that side? Are they in the Cup this year? No I don't see them, but my god their ghost is. Will nobody rid me of this turbulent team? Arrrgghh!

Hey that's cool! Janick Gers, guitarist with my favourite metal band, Iron Maiden, is a fan. So was Meat Loaf. Bat out of Hartlepool? Sorry.