Memories of a non-league reporter

In the first of a series of articles, BBC Radio Lancashire's non-league reporter Simon Sandiford looks back at his early days of covering FA Cup ties involving clubs from the NWCFL.

I’ve been watching football at this level since I discovered the wonders of the Bass North West Counties League with a chance Saturday afternoon visit to see Ashton United play Atherton LR in November 1990. I continued to watch Ashton 80 times over the next five years including four cup finals and several promotion attempts, one of which was successful as they pipped Great Harwood to the post in an amazing night at Bacup.

I started watching non-league football again in early 1999, mainly at Unibond level involving Runcorn FC where I did home and away radio coverage on the local radio station. I did though manage to relay the climax of Warrington Town’s promotion attempt live from Maghull when they managed to blow it all in dramatic circumstances.

Since mid-2000 when I started reporting for Radio Lancashire, I have been lucky to see countless dramatic games, and you can’t get more dramatic than the FA Cup. It was only when I was travelling over to Sheffield to see if Bacup Borough could reach the 3rd Qualifying Round for the first time in 58 years, I started to think about the other FA Cup games I have seen involving NWCFL sides over the years.

My first ever FA Cup game of any description was way back in early 1990 when I went to a packed Spotland to see Rochdale win 3-0 in what was an excellent game. So, my next match had a lot to live up to.

31st August 1991 and visiting Hurst Cross to play Ashton United was former NWCFL side Rhyl, then in the HFS Loans League Division One. It was the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup and Ashton were confident of an upset having won their opening two league games 3-1 at Blackpool (Wren) Rovers and 5-1 against Bootle.

Looking at the programme from that game I notice that Dave Denby the Ashton United manager wrote that he was missing Phil Hulme and Steve Morgan for the game as they were on holiday. I remember then wondering why players don’t go on holiday in the summer, rather than wait for the season to start and miss a critical FA Cup tie. It seems strange as well to see the team sheet with just two substitutes listed per side.

The game itself didn’t produce much excitement as it finished 0-0 and went to a replay that Rhyl won 1-0. The game though was significant in other ways as the 91/92 season was Rhyl’s last in the FA Cup and also their last in the English football pyramid. While some teams were exiled from their grounds and forced to play home games in England rather than choose to join the Welsh leagues, Rhyl took the gamble of joining the Cymru Alliance.

They soon rose to the Konica League of Wales and have since gone on to play in Europe. Rhyl’s last ever FA Cup run though didn’t end in glory though as they were beaten at North Wales neighbours Colwyn Bay 2-0 in the 2nd Qualifying Round.

I only got to see one other game involving a NWCFL side in the FA Cup in the early 1990s, and it was on 11th September 1993. Ashton United – then in the NPL Div 1 – hosted Atherton LR, who were about to embark on a memorable season.

They would end the season top of the NWCFL for the second successive time, this time securing promotion, having been denied by ground grading first time round, as well as reach the FA Vase semi final later in the season.

They came into the game having put out Blackpool (Wren) Rovers 6-1 away in a replay in the previous round. Ashton United remarkably hadn’t won a single FA Cup tie for 5 years. They soon set the record straight though winning 4-0, but didn’t manage another FA Cup win for 3 more years.

In my first full season reporting for the BBC, the first NWCFL side I saw in the FA Cup was Clitheroe, managed by Dave Burgess, and a particularly fascinating looking 2nd Qualifying Round tie against Hyde United from the Unibond Premier Division.

So I was looking forward to reporting on a big FA Cup shock at the first attempt, especially as according to the match programme, it was also the first time that the sides had ever met in any competition. But it finished 2-1 to Hyde and although I still had never seen a NWCL side win an FA Cup game, I at least saw a goal – Jason Jones doing the honours.

Unfortunately I was not very good luck for Clitheroe in the FA Cup. In 2001 I saw them go out 3-1 to Rossington Main, and then in 2002 I witnessed Clitheroe 1 Radcliffe Borough 3. Interestingly Radcliffe went on that season to reach the 4th Qualifying Round where they were beaten by Chester City. On their way there they won 7-0 at Rossington Main (who had knocked Clitheroe out the previous season) as well as beating Abbey Hey in the previous round.

And it is Abbey Hey hold the title as the first team from the NWCFL that I ever saw win an FA Cup game. And even to this day, it remains Abbey Hey’s only win in an FA Cup tie ever! It came three days after I had seen Clitheroe beaten by Radcliffe, and on a dramatic Tuesday evening, Bamber Bridge - having just been relegated from the Unibond Premier the season before – were the hosts.

I was reporting as normal for BBC Radio Lancashire and with no Football League games on the agenda that evening, there was a dedicated rugby union programme that took place until 8.00pm and then general sport until 10.00pm. That meant that my first report on air was about 25 mins into the game. So rather than just a quick update, I had to do a sort-of preview, review of the 0-0 draw in the first leg, and update on the first part of the game.

Somehow while filling my 2 minutes or so, I was totally oblivious to the cheers from the 160 crowd. Lee Pryers was fouled in the area after he did a bit of a one two with Alex Porter. The ref pointed to the spot and awarded a penalty to Bamber Bridge. Still I am waffling on about some half chances 15 mins earlier, looking totally in the wrong direction, unaware of the impending spot kick.

There is something dramatic about getting to commentate on a penalty kick live on air – and at a non league game the chance doesn’t happen that often, so did I suddenly work out what was going on and get the drama broadcast to the people? No I didn’t.

Phil Robinson took the spot kick against Abbey Hey keeper Liam Higginbottom and just as I was closing the report, it suddenly became obvious that the ball was in the back of the net and the home fans were cheering! Always a good sign that a goal has been scored! So I had to quickly work it out as I was talking and relay the good news that the local side was ahead.

So at that point I expected it to be a straightforward evening as the score remained 1-0 throughout what appeared to be the rest of the game. After all Abbey Hey had gone out of the FA Cup 8-1 the previous year at Marske United of the Northern League. As well as that Unibond League side Stocksbridge Park Steels had thrashed Oldham Town amazingly 17-1 three days earlier.

But Abbey Hey had other ideas. Just after I had made all my notes for my pending full time report – 88 mins on the clock and captain Darren Evans took a free kick from way out and striker Joe Metz’s header at close range brought the game back level. Totally different angle required to my report required and just seconds to think of what to say exactly as we approached extra time.

Extra time is always fascinating of course, but it does mean that the final report doesn’t fit in the evening’s sports programme! So whatever happened I would have my final report recorded and played on the morning sports news bulletins.

I certainly was kept busy during extra time. I did a couple of update reports as the programme came to a close with just over 5 minutes to go - it was still 1-1 with Bamber Bridge looking the brighter. But then as it looked like it would be penalties, Abbey Hey took the lead. Andrew Levendis took a corner through several legs to Joe Metz who scored his second and what surely would be a last gasp extra time winner.

Not quite! Bamber Bridge decided that the 60 seconds of extra time remaining was enough. They broke pretty much from kick off and David Sutch who had come on as substitute midway through the second half, he fired in a speculative effort from the right of the box and amazingly they were back level at 2-2 with just seconds remaining.

If that wasn’t all dramatic enough, the penalty shoot out wasn’t without its excitement either. Bamber Bridge scored first from Phil Robinson, Darren Evans made it 1-1 for Abbey Hey. Liam Higginbottom made a save from Stewart Clitheroe and it suddenly seemed clear that this was a night for a cup upset.

Cyril Sharrock in the Bamber Bridge goal must have felt hard done by when Andrew Levendis hit both posts and the ball managed to get over the line to put Abbey Hey in control. David Such for the home side and Matt Jackson for the visitors meant a shock was still on at 2-3.

Another great save by Liam Higginbottom from Peter Smith meant that it was all down to Dave Amison to wrap it up. So that was Abbey Hey’s first ever win and everyone went home – apart from me, as I had to then find a way of summarising all that into a 25 seconds match report!

There was more to come in the 2002/03 FA Cup season for me to watch involving the NWCFL. Great Harwood matched their best ever FA Cup run and I’ll pick up with their home game with Crook Town in the next article.

Simon Sandiford