Our former clubs in the FA Cup

By Simon Sandiford of BBC Radio Lancashire

The FA Cup is always such a fascinating competition – right from the opening Extra Preliminary round through to the dramas of the latter stages. Bacup Borough did the league proud this year getting to the 2nd Qualifying Round, but it is interesting to see how far the former NWCFL clubs progressed in the competition.

I’ve taken a look back at some of the higher profile performers this season, and the three best performing former NWCFL teams all reached the second round.

Fleetwood Town

Fleetwood Town were founder members of the NWCFL in a previous incarnation. Their most recent spell saw them promoted to the UnibondLeague in 2005 – and that was just for starters! Major ground redevelopment, as well as two more promotions up to the Conference North saw this season’s FA Cup run start at the 2nd Qualifying Round stage, which also happened to be the first match in charge for new manager Micky Mellon.

A great win at Wakefield, then a home win against Farsley Celtic, followed by a close call 4-3 win against Nantwich Town. The first round proper saw Leiston from Suffolk hold them 0-0, before Fleetwood won 2-0 at the Highbury Stadium in the replay, going on to face Hartlepool in the 2nd Round. The biggest crowd since the latest reformation of 3280 saw them go down 3-2 on a very foggy afternoon.

Curzon Ashton

Curzon Ashton were the stars of the 1st Round day with their win against Exeter, but they had already played through five rounds just to get to that stage! Of all the former NWCFL teams that have done well in this season’s FA Cup, they are the longest serving team, having spent 14 seasons over two separate spells. They were founder members back at the start.

After five years they joined the NPL Division 1 where they stayed for 10 years before being relegated again. Controversially they weren’t relegated back to the NWCFL but instead to the Northern Counties East League where they spent one season before being transferred back to join the 2nd Division of the NWCFL a year later

It took another 9 years to regain their NPL Division 1 status. In fact in that 1996/97 season, the bottom 5 of the NPL Division 1 were all clubs that would normally have gone to the NWCFL. What would havehappened if Workington had finished one place lower and been relegated along with Warrington and Atherton LR I don’t know!

When Curzon Ashton started their FA Cup campaign back in the PreliminaryRound in August against Runcorn Linnets, they could only have dreamed of the headlines they would be making in the coming weeks. Runcorn were defeated 4-0, and then Premier Division Leigh Genesis beaten 1-0 in the1st Qualifying Round. A good 2-1 win at Stockbridge Park Steels set up a 3rd Qualifying Round local derby with Mossley.

Having attended many Tameside derbies over the years, they are always fiery affairs – and this one seems to have been no different. They spent 6 seasons together in the NWCFL and these days both play in the Unibond League Division 1 North.

There were almost 500 fans present to see Curzon take a 2-0 lead thanks to Alex Elliot and Phil Edghill. Mossley pulled one back from what appeared to be an own goal from Edghill, but he quickly made up for it seconds from the break by making it 3-1.

Mossley staged a second half comeback to level things at 3-3 with 25 minutes left, and Michael Norton grabbed the winner with 7 minutes remaining to send Curzon into the final qualifying round for the first time ever.

Hinckley United were next up and the visit to Leicestershire ended 1-1, so it was back to Tameside for the replay. The draw had already been made of course so Curzon knew that the winners would host League 2 side Exeter City. Another 1-1 draw this time saw the game go to extra time and then penalties.

The shoot out was quite dramatic as both sides converted their opening kicks. Curzon scored their second before Hinckley hit the post. Then both sides had their shots saved, before the 4th round of kicks saw both scored. So Curzon had to score their 5th to go through…and it was saved. Hinckley needed to score to stay in it… and it was saved as well. Cue delight and excitement as Curzon made it through to the first round, and the eyes of the rest of the football world started to take an interest.

FA Cup 1st Round day dawned and lots of clubs secretly think they have a chance against the bigger boys. Chris Worsley put Curzon ahead inthe first half. The soon to become briefly famous James Ogoo – the Manchester hotel porter formerly of Oldham Town, a Gambian international who played for them three times, once against George Weah – scored the second Curzon goal with a great volley.

With Exeter desperate to get back into it as the last 10 minutes approached, Curzon broke and Michael Norton got what would surely be the wrap-up goal. Or would it? Steve Basham scored on 84 mins, and then Exeter went down to 10 men with Matt Gill sent off.

They still managed to pull another goal back though in injury time to keep everyone on the edge of their seats chewing their nails, but dramatically Curzon held on and the nation finally knew all about the Tamesiders – apart from Alan Green who famously called them “Curzon Albion” on his after-match phone-in. It did prompt PFA’s Gordon Taylor (who many years ago played for Curzon Ashton’s youth side) to phone him in and tell him off though!

So could Curzon’s amazing run continue with a less than inspiring draw away at Kidderminster Harriers? The answer to that is, no it couldn’t. It was their 8th FA Cup game of the season and they had already easily played more games than the eventually winners will do.

It didn’t help when goalkeeper David Carnell was sent off for bringing down Stefan Moore after half an hour. Kidderminster capitalised with a 38th minute go-ahead goal by Moore who got his revenge for missing out 8 minutes earlier. Mark Creighton got the second on 65 minutes s and there was no way back for the Tamesiders.

Droylsden

Curzon Ashton weren’t the only Tamesiders making their mark in the FA Cup this season – and if Curzon’s run was dramatic, Droylsden’s sets new records for how bizarre it was.

Droylsden were founder members of the NWCFL and spent five seasons in Division 2. They won the division in 1987 and were promoted straight up to the new Northern Premier League Division 1. Now in the Conference North, their FA Cup journey started at the 2nd Qualifying Round stage. Every single game they played was close – there was never more than 1 goal in a game.

The first game was at home to an always tough to beat Bradford Park Avenue. The Yorkshire side are also a former NWCFL side having played in the league in the early 1990s. The Bradford manager at the time of the game was Dave Cameron – who played for Droylsden 4 years ago – and there were 5 former players in the Bradford squad. The referee helped out the Bloods – at least according to Avenue fans.

The first decision was an awarding of a free kick when Chris Hall was just about to put the ball in the back of the net – surely the play should have been allowed to continue – and the goal was ruled out with the score at 1-1 on the hour. As an aside, I’ve always wondered if there is an easier way to settle issues like this than the referee deciding from what may be a difficult angle if it is best to play on, or call it back for a free kick.

This is one thing that American sports have got right I think. Instead of stopping the play, the equivalent of the assistant’s flag means that a foul is deemed to have been committed and if the side that would benefit from the free kick still retains possession, then the move is allowed to continue until possession is lost.

At this point the free kick can be awarded at its original point, and the player with the ball may not immediately give up when touched and roll around the field, but instead would carry on his run at goal, knowing that the free kick would be awarded anyway if he didn’t score. Worth a trial anyway I think.

Back to the Bradford v Droylsden game and there was more drama to come, this time with that old chestnut, the dodgy penalty decision. The Bradford keeper comes to meet the advancing Kevin Townson. The Droylsden striker seems to kick the ball forward and out for a goal kick, but falls down towards the keeper at the same time. The referee awards a penalty and Sean Newton put Droylsden ahead and into the next round.

Examples like this thankfully are not that prevalent at non league level, but situations do exist where referees are deceived by what appears to be a challenge in the area. Those who are really good at deceiving will no doubt continue to get away with it for as long as live video replays stay out of the game.

For those instances where the referee or his assistant sees that an attempt to deceive them has occurred, I think this should be punished by an immediate red card for cheating. Surely it is just an extension of the respect for referees campaign. Players need to know they have to respect the fans as well as the officials, because a result that is determined by something like that makes football a game that should be decided by judges’ scorecards.

Back once more to the game and there was one final twist left to this eventful FA Cup tie, when in the dying seconds with Bradford desperately trying to grab an equaliser, Stuart Rudd seemed to have gone down in the area – and this time the ref said play on.

So Droylsden took their place in the 3rd Qualifying Round at home to Gateshead. This game was only decided in injury time when Droylsden’s Carl Lamb headed home the winner. Droylsden had led twice before Gateshead equalised again in the second half. It was looking like a tough replay was in order before Lamb got the winner to put the home side into the draw for the 4th Qualifying Round.

Belper Town were next. This time it was an uneventful 0-0 draw that put the Bloods into the draw for the 1st Round proper, so the teams knew that the winners would travel to Darlington by the time the replay took place. It was a bit of a surprise that a team from two divisions below had taken Droylsden to a replay, but Belper did deserve it.

The replay saw Droylsden lead 2-0 at the break, but they had to hold out with Belper launching a late comeback. It was the dreaded last minute goal that gave Belper hope, but Droylsden held on and won a trip to Darlington in the 1st Round proper.

So off to Darlington and another 0-0 draw – but the significance of this should not be glossed over. This was a team at the top end of League 2 who had not yet failed to score against any side at home. A replay back at the Butchers Arms ensued and this was a game that those looking for a cup shock would surely have been keeping an eye on.

They ultimately would not be disappointed – although it came close to being abandoned after Darlington’s Liam Hatch was injured. With Droylsden leading 1-0 from a Matthew Tipton goal in the first half, Darlington went all out in attack to get the equaliser as the game progressed.

With just over 10 minutes remaining, Hatch collided with a Darlington team mate and suffered what at the time seemed to be a serious spinal injury. Play was delayed for almost 30 minutes to allow paramedics to arrive, and at one point, everyone was convinced that the game would be abandoned. Once the game did restart, Darlington had no more subs left, were clearly subdued after the incident, and the equaliser didn’t come.

Thankfully Hatch’s injury turned out to be less serious than originally thought, and for Droylsden the win meant that the 2nd Round proper beckoned, and a trip to another League 2 side – Chesterfield. This game turned out to be one of the stories of this season’s FA Cup.

Saturday 29th November was a foggy day all over the country – and Chesterfield was no different. The 2nd Round game at Saltergate got underway though, and to the delight of the visiting fans, Droylsden scored 10 minutes from the break. Most of the fans didn’t get to actually see the goal though, it was that foggy.

Even though the fog hadn’t deteriorated particularly as the game had gone on, it had become obvious that it wasn’t the right decision to have started the game. With that in mind, the referee called it off at half time, to the disgust of Droylsden boss Dave Pace. They had deserved their half time lead and felt hard done to see the game having to be replayed.

The 3rd round draw meanwhile had the winners on the road to Ipswich Town – former UEFACup winners of course – and this presented a massive incentive to win the replayed match. The return to Chesterfield surely couldn’t be as controversial could it?

It started off normally. Chesterfield went ahead just after the half hour. Alex Brown equalised 5 minutes into the second half. But around 12 minutes from time, it all went mad as Jack Lester scored when everyone was expecting him to return the ball to Droylsden after an injury had seen them put the ball out of play.

Chesterfield’s Carl Lamb was injured in the area and the ball was put out of play so he could receive treatment from the physio. When Chesterfield returned the ball to play, Lester didn’t pass it back to Droylsden, he instead chipped it over the keeper’s head and into the back of the net! No argument, it was a goal – but was it a mistake or did Lester mean to chip the keeper?

That argument was only secondary to the one that then broke out on the sidelines as a furious Droylsden bench were clearly distressed by the situation. To be fair to Chesterfield they did the only thing they could to restore things – they allowed Droylsden to walk the ball into the net for the equaliser. They didn’t have to allow it – they had done nothing wrong – but allow it they did and Droylsden’s Steve Halford walked the ball from the kick-off into the area and over the line.

So after two games, it was still level and on to a replay at the Butchers Arms. Despite early confidence of an upset, Droylsden were trailing 2-0 with just 17 minutes remaining. It didn’t really look like they would get back into it, but then the floodlights failed.

Cue an agonising delay – surely there couldn’t be more controversy in this tie. Finally, the ref abandoned the game to the disgust this time of the Chesterfield contingent. Manager Nicky Law is quoted as saying that you could see more in the half-lit pitch than you could in the fog at Saltergate when Droylsden had wanted the game to have continued. It was abandoned though and amazingly the tie went to a fourth game. Surely there was nothing else that could happen?

Sean Newton scored twice for Droylsden. Jack Lester, who had scored that controversial goal at Saltergate for Chesterfield, equalised with a goal that came from a charged down goal kick that trickled over the line. Six minutes into the second half saw a penalty for Droylsden – this was a clear one with Matthew Tipton having his shirt pulled. Sean Newton took the kick and scored and Droylsden hung on to record a famous victory.

Or so it seemed. Two goal hero Sean Newton was supposed to be suspended for one game starting on 23rd December. Because of the final match having been scheduled for the 23rd, he shouldn’t have played. So the FA expelled Droylsden and that was that.

Accrington Stanley

Accrington Stanley are the only former NWCFL side to currently play in the Football league, so of course they got a bye to the 1st Round proper. But the FA Cup didn’t have much cheer for them this season as they went out at Tranmere Rovers 1-0 in a replay following a drab 0-0 draw at home. You can tell when a game is uneventful when the official Accrington web site match report simply states that the game was goalless and gives the date the replay will take place. Chris Shuker scored the decisive goal for Tranmere in the replay.

And there’s the Welsh contingent….

It’s easy to forget that some former NWCFL clubs now play in the Welsh leagues these days and so compete in the FAW Welsh Cup instead. None of them got as far as the quarter finals though this time. Rhyl went out on penalties at Bangor City to end their hopes of winning it for the 5th time. Their journey started at the 2nd Round stage with the 8-0 thrashing of a small village side called Castell Alun Colts from just north of Wrexham.

Colts play in the Premier Division of the Welsh National League. That sounds very grand, but the Welsh National League is actually level 3 of the Welsh pyramid and there is quite a gulf in standard between amateur sides like the Colts and a top Welsh Premier side like Rhyl.

In the 3rd Round, Rhyl faced fellow Premier side Haverfordwest County and sent them packing from Belle View with a 4-0 scoreline. The 4th Round tie though was a little tougher - Bangor City away. Previous games have seen a bit of unruly behaviour on the terraces, and Bangor were fined after a league clash earlier in the season. This time the game had high security and the kick-off was moved to 12.15pm.

On the pitch it was tense as well, with Bangor taking the lead in the second half, former Rhyl player Chris Sharp breaking the deadlock. Rhyl grabbed a late equaliser to send the tie to extra time. The score remained 1-1 after extra time and Bangor won the shoot-out 4-2.

Rhyl weren’t the only former NWCFL side in action. Caernarfon Town’s 2nd Round tie was away at fellow Welsh Premier team Porthmadog. There was to be no cup run though as they went down to a 5-3 defeat. Scoring three goals in that game though was at least positive, as they are currently well adrift at the bottom of the league having only scored 18 times in their opening 20 league games. It looks like only a miracle will save them this year from rejoining the Cyrmu Alliance.

So there’s now no interest in the English or Welsh FA Cup competitions for current or former NWCFL clubs. Oh well, there’s always next season!

Simon Sandiford