The FA Cup Thread 2024

[Trollheart]

Team name: Horsham
Home city or town: Horsham
Area: West Sussex
Nickname: The Hornets
Home ground: Fusion Aviation Community Stadium
Manager: Dominic di Paola
Currently playing in: Isthmian League Premier
Tier: 7
First opponent in Round One: Chesterfield
Highest position achieved: Current
Giant Killing(s) None
Best FA Cup run: Third round
Rivals: Unknown

Originally founded in 1871, Horsham Football Club collapsed due to basic lack of interest/time, and was resurrected in 1881. You have to feel for them: in their first appearance in the FA Cup they faced Notts County and took a first-minute lead, only to end up losing the match 9-1! Now that's a loss of a lead that the Irish national team would be proud of. Talk about shooting your load too soon, or something.

Definitely a team that should have chosen the name Horsham Wanderers, they sold their ground in 2008 (doesn't say why, but I assume they needed the cash) and spent the next  years traipsing around from ground to ground like lost waifs with footballs under their arms maybe, until 2021, when they were able to build their own finally. That's a long time to be homeless for a football team.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Huddersfield Town
Home city or town: Huddersfield
Area: West Yorkshire
Nickname: The Terriers
Home ground: John Smith's Stadium (someone give it back to him!)
Manager: Michael Duff
Currently playing in: EFL League 1
Tier: 3
First opponent in Round One: Tamworth
Highest position achieved: Premier League
Giant Killing(s) None that I can see
Best FA Cup run: Final (winners)
Rivals: Bradford City, Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Oldham Athletic, Peterborough United, Barnsley,

Interesting. In 1908 Huddersfield Town was founded, on Leeds Road. I wonder if Leeds United were already in existence, and if not, why they didn't call the team after the road. Even more interesting; they were not. In fact, Leeds only came into being ten years later. Maybe these guys preferred Huddersfield, who knows? Right, reading further, it seems they were in debt to the tune of twenty-five grand in 1919, coincidentally the year Leeds were founded, and Huddersfield's board considered merging the two teams, and moving to Leeds. Supporters, aghast at this potential loss of their team, bought shares and managed to block the move, saving the team. Good for them.

Soon after, the supporters' faith in their team was repaid as they made it to the FA Cup final and earned promotion to the First Division, the Premier League of its day. Things just got better for Huddersfield-not-Leeds two years later, as they won the FA Cup and one year after that the then Premier League. In 1926 they made history as the first English football club to win the "Premier League" three times. Another record of sorts when they took part in, but did not win, the 1938 FA Cup final, which was the first to be broadcast on the telly.

The sixties and seventies were bad times for them, as they began to slide down the divisions, with a few recoveries along the way, and in 1988 they had another, unwanted record when they conceded 100 goals in a season, while the new millennium saw the club 20 million in debt and unable to sack the manager, as they could not pay him his severance. Not surprisingly, they went into administration, but were saved in 2003 by a fresh injection of cash by a new owner.

Their fortunes began to turn, and by 2018 Huddersfield were back in Division One, now renamed the Premier League (and later, the Premiership, for some reason) but only lasted the one season, flirting with administration again by 2020, again saved by yet another new owner.

[Trollheart]

Team name: Hednesford Town
Home city or town: Hednesford
Area: Staffordshire
Nickname: The Pitmen
Home ground: Keys Park
Manager: Steve King
Currently playing in: Northern Premier League Division One West
Tier: 8
First opponent in Round One: Boston United or Gainsborough **++
Highest position achieved:National League
Giant Killing(s) Blackpool (1-0, 1996) York City (1-0, 1996)
Best FA Cup run: Fourth round
Rivals: Unknown

The team playing in the lowest tier yet, Hednesford don't seem to have come into their own until the mid 1990s, when they won promotion to the National League, then called the Conference. This seems to have been something of a springboard for them, as they finished third and also reached the fourth round of the FA Cup, defeating League 2 opposition twice. Around 2000 though they began to lose ground, and suffered relegation after relegation, ending up in football's next-to-lowest tier, the eighth.