[ Sat 7th Dec ] v Graham St Prims, KO 3pm, FA VASE 3R HOME

[Formic]

Mal's pics are added to the match report, and the player profiles and the fixture news pages are updated.

[Trek]

Interesting to see if our attendance yesterday was the largest in the round. Certainly beats the 542 at Whitley Bay against Dunston and the 518 at last season's finalists, Tunbridge Wells.
Can't locate attendances for Ashington, Spennymoor and West Auckland. All their Official web sites have no detailed information on their matches yesterday and the FA Main site has no results at present.

[BartonRaz]

Teams through are below. Based on nothing other than league position and an extremely basic knowledge of the leagues good/bad draws in green/red. Indifferent i've left black.

Spennymoor Town - 4th Step 5
West Auckland Town - 3rd Step 5
Brighouse Town/Whickham - 7th Step 5 / 14th Step 6
Morpeth Town - 18th Step 5
Newcastle Benfield - 13th Step 5
Ashington - 6th Step 5
Dunston UTS - 8th Step 5
Congleton Town - 16th Step 5
Causeway United - 5th Step 5
AFC Rushden & Diamonds - 4th Step 5
Coleshill Town - 10th Step 5
Wisbech Town - 7th Step 5
Westfields - 14th Step 5
St Andrews - 8th Step 6
Hullbridge Sports - 11th Step 5
East Preston - 1st Step 5
Hanwell Town - 2nd Step 5
Ampthill Town - 1st Step 5
Brightlingsea Regent/Colney Heath - 4th Step 5 / 4th Step 5
Ashford United - 3rd Step 5
Eastbourne United - 2nd Step 6
Hadleigh United - 1st Step 5
Norwich United - 9th Step 5
Hanworth Villa - 12th Step 5
Brantham Athletic - 7th Step 5
Moneyfields/Bitton - 11th Step 5 / 11th Step 5
Hallen - 10th Step 5
Blackfield & Langley - 4th Step 5
Larkhall Athletic - 1st Step 5
Sholing - 2nd Step 5
Bodmin Town - 3rd Step 6
Alresford Town - 5th Step 5

[Formic]

Thanks for that. The three teams from the Spartan South Midlands are all from the top four, so we might need to look a bit further afield than that league. There are some really long potential away trips in that, whatever section of the draw we end up in. It would be an interesting tie if we had to face Ashford United, as they are another club that was forced to reform at Step 6, before "winning" promotion to step 5 last season - although perhaps another trip to deepest Kent might not be too good.

The step 6 teams are all distant apart from St Andrews, who are from Leicester.

Apart from Congleton (who must be a threat given they knocked out Huntingdon yesterday), there are no other teams from the North West as far as I can see.

[Formic]

Here's a list sorted in order of the various leagues the teams are from

Team League Step
Hanworth Villa Combined Counties Premier 5
Brantham Athletic Eastern Counties Premier 5
Brightlingsea Regent Eastern Counties Premier 5
Hadleigh United Eastern Counties Premier 5
Norwich United Eastern Counties Premier 5
Hullbridge Sports Essex Senior League 5
Causeway United Midland Alliance Division 1 5
Coleshill Town Midland Alliance Division 1 5
Westfields Midland Alliance Division 1 5
Congleton Town North West Counties Premier 5
Brighouse Town Northern Counties East Premier 5
Ashington Northern League Division 1 5
Dunston UTS Northern League Division 1 5
Morpeth Town Northern League Division 1 5
Newcastle Benfield Northern League Division 1 5
Spennymoor Town Northern League Division 1 5
West Auckland Town Northern League Division 1 5
Ashford United Southern Counties East Premier 5
Ampthill Town Spartan South Midlands Prem 5
Colney Heath Spartan South Midlands Prem 5
Hanwell Town Spartan South Midlands Prem 5
East Preston Sussex County League Division 1 5
AFC Rushden & Diamonds United Counties Premier 5
Wisbech Town United Counties Premier 5
Alresford Town Wessex League Premier 5
Blackfield & Langley Wessex League Premier 5
Moneyfields Wessex League Premier 5
Sholing Wessex League Premier 5
Bitton Western League Premier 5
Hallen Western League Premier 5
Larkhall Athletic Western League Premier 5
St Andrews East Midlands Counties League 6
Whickham Northern League Division 2 6
Bodmin Town South West Peninsula Premier 6
Eastbourne United Sussex County League Division 2 6

[Formic]

Thought today we didn't perform well at all today but by the time the next round is upon us (18 Jan I believe) we'll hopefully be back in form with Jamal, Bunts, Faze & Alfie all firing on full cylinders!!

I'd agree with that. I think the Prims would consider themselves unfortunate not to have forced extra time, especially as they could easily have been given a penalty in the second half when Brad fell onto their striker. Whilst it might have been harsh, given it would have been accidental, it looked like the striker was in the area at the time.

I was glad we managed to get to the end of our exhausting sequence of games with a win, and hopefully when we get to the next Vase game the players will have had time to get over the Christmas period.

We'll need to be sharper in front of goal, whoever we play.

[sussexdiamond]

If as Bobs Bitch says the draw is still regionalized, does that mean North/South or as in previous rounds
North, Midlands, South/South East and West.

If it is the 4 regions then we would most likely be in with
Causeway, Coleshill, Westfields, St Andrews,Wisbech,Norwich Utd, Hadleigh
Which in all honesty is probably the weakest of the groupings, as only Hadleigh are top of their league.
But whatever the draw anyone at home we can beat, and as has been said we are stronger than last season so do not need to fear anyone. Its just the long journeys that can be so annoying.

[Bob's Bitch]

If as Bobs Bitch says the draw is still regionalized, does that mean North/South or as in previous rounds
North, Midlands, South/South East and West.

If it is the 4 regions then we would most likely be in with
Causeway, Coleshill, Westfields, St Andrews,Wisbech,Norwich Utd, Hadleigh
Which in all honesty is probably the weakest of the groupings, as only Hadleigh are top of their league.
But whatever the draw anyone at home we can beat, and as has been said we are stronger than last season so do not need to fear anyone. Its just the long journeys that can be so annoying.

If we ask Santa really nicely hopefully we'll get a Midlands grouping! I'm guessing the FA make it up as they go along. Since we've not had the yearly cold snap yet I wonder if they'd want to avoid the possibility of Morpeth v Norwich United being postponed for at least one more round.

[Trek]

It seems that the Moneyfields/Bitton tie was abandoned by the referee in AET after a mass brawl took place between both clubs. Obviously the FA have set a precedent in the Sleaford/Huntingdon FA Cup tie abandoned in similar circumstances so it may be that whoever gets drawn against them will also get a walk over into the 5th Round of the competition and pocket £2000.

[Olly]

Interesting to see if our attendance yesterday was the largest in the round. Certainly beats the 542 at Whitley Bay against Dunston and the 518 at last season's finalists, Tunbridge Wells.
Can't locate attendances for Ashington, Spennymoor and West Auckland. All their Official web sites have no detailed information on their matches yesterday and the FA Main site has no results at present.

Spennymoor's crowd was 440, don't know about the other 2, so yeah, I'd be surprised if anyone managed over 563. And interestingly, I notice following their Vase run last year, Tunbridge Wells's average crowd this season has almost doubled from last year. They're top of their league as well, so that might have something to do with it, but I'd be interested to know what effect, if any, success in the Vase has on attendances, cause of course you see every year, clubs that average 50, getting crowds of several 100 or more in the semi finals and taking several 1000 'fans' to Wembley as well, how many of those ever go back? Spennymoor's has gone up 12%, though they've always been successful in the league, winning it a few years in a row.