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Trek wrote:More information on CRC.

Cambridge United has close links with Cambridge Regional College, a team formed in 2006 as a de facto reserve team. FA rules prohibit reserve teams playing at certain levels of the football pyramid, and so the CRC name was adopted in recognition of the College's financial support, and because the team is made up almost entirely of students.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they play at the Abbey Stadium as well don't they (or at least they used to), meaning we'll be back there just like old times if a replay is needed, we may even be able to stand in the home end! Though hopefully we won't need a replay of course.

Also I had a feeling we'd be drawn to Wellingborough town again!

A friend of mine used to play for CRC and he was thoroughly average, Certainly not the sort of player a pro club would have on their books. Makes me wonder what the set-up really is there. He wasn't a student at CRC either, although he was a student elsewhere at the time.

I was about to say that they play at The Abbey. I wonder if they actually have replays in the early stages of the Vase?

Fakenham are know as 'The Ghosts' :lol:

Sounds like a tough draw.

Even though ideally we'll go through at the first time of asking, a replay at the Abbey Stadium wouldn't exactly be a bad thing!

Yes since 2006 they've used the Abbey Stadium.

Some info on last season's CRC players.

http://www.cambridge-united.co.uk/page/ ... 57,00.html

Formic wrote:

Trek wrote:

Diamond_ Wolf wrote:CRC are a decent outfit and from i understand they are basically Cambridge Utd Reserves.

Correct. They are basically over age youth players. Good draw and nice to see we have a bye to the second qualifying round.

I wonder if we drew a bye, or were awarded one by some criterion. I was a bit worried when I managed to load the draw for the first qualifying round at noon (by having to patch a URL as the FA were their normal selves when launching the draw) and didnt see our name in there.

Well to me the draw doesn't make sense, for example Oadby Town of our league at level 10 are exempt to the second round proper, whereas there's a few teams like Wellingborough Town and Huntingdon that have to start 3 rounds earlier in the first qualifying round, despite being from the level above at level 9. Clearly the level the team is at doesn't matter like in the other FA competitons, but did Oadby do particularly well in the Vase last season and thus gaining exemption to a later round or is it purely by chance that they get to enter so late?

BartonRaz wrote:A friend of mine used to play for CRC and he was thoroughly average, Certainly not the sort of player a pro club would have on their books. Makes me wonder what the set-up really is there. He wasn't a student at CRC either, although he was a student elsewhere at the time.

I was about to say that they play at The Abbey. I wonder if they actually have replays in the early stages of the Vase?

Fakenham are know as 'The Ghosts' :lol:

There can be replays in the Vase - but they can also be settled by penalties after extra-time in the first game -

"If a first match is drawn after 90 minutes, an extra 30 minutes shall be played (15 minutes each way). Clubs may mutually agree, and confirm on the Match Arrangement Form, to determine the winner of a match drawn after extra time by taking kicks from the penalty mark in accordance with the International Football Association Board procedure. The agreed arrangement must be notified to the Referee not later than 45 minutes prior to kick-off."

Oadby reached the latter stages of this competition last season so perhaps they've been given exemptions as a reward.

Trek wrote:Oadby reached the latter stages of this competition last season so perhaps they've been given exemptions as a reward.

I'm 99% sure that this is the case, and I believe St. Ives had a good run last season also.

Hoping Fakenham get through, not a fan of pseudo-reserve teams, and I think CRC have been fairly strong in ECL also?

Full draw
http://www.htucfl.com/LeagueNews/view/22738

This game takes place tomorrow so we should find out who we're going to get - assuming there's no replay.

Fakenham haven't had a great start to their season, and are 11th in the Eastern Counties Division One, picking up 4 points from their first 4 games.

CRC are 12th in the Eastern Counties Premier Division, with 5 points from 5 games.