Lower league football back in spotlight as magic of FA Cup returns

FA Cup

Talking Points

By Kaz Mochlinski

Football has lost so many of its previously-appreciated aspects with the growth of the modern game, including in South-East London the original version of The Den at Cold Blow Lane and the enormous East Terrace at The Valley, Charlton Athletic’s reclaimed and rebuilt stadium.

But one thing in the sport which has seemed timeless and unchanged in any significant way are early-round FA Cup ties at lower league grounds. Indeed, they are maybe more valued than ever with mainstream terrestrial television coverage shown live by both the BBC and ITV.

Time and again they still provide an opportunity for teams that may be less well-known and unheralded to rise to prominence, even if only briefly. Often they become the unforgettable high-points of many part-time footballers’ careers.

There is a magic in the random draw which in most years gives smaller clubs increased recognition at a national level. It is an important reward for the immeasurable efforts put in around the country by volunteer officials, coaches, physios, groundstaff, etc., as well as for the players themselves.

And it is equally notable in reminding some once-great clubs that they continue to be giants when compared to the non-league minnows they sometimes get to face, such as when Ipswich Town’s rapid improvement became evident playing away to Bracknell Town at Bottom Meadow a couple of years ago.

Last season’s FA Cup first round produced a particularly memorable set of such matches around London and the South-East of England. Three in particular stood out, with in each case a non-league side welcoming a former Cup-winning club and drawing record crowds to their grounds.

Bromley took on the 1953 FA Cup winners Blackpool, Horsham played the 1912 victors Barnsley, and Cray Valley Paper Mills met Charlton Athletic, who had lifted the trophy in 1947. Moreover, all three of the visiting teams were in the top half of League One at the time of the first round, so they were in decent form.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, since they were as highly-ranked opponents as it is possible to meet at that stage, the League One clubs won the three ties (although Barnsley were subsequently disqualified for including an ineligible player). But not one of the EFL trio found it remotely easy in this setting.

Each of the non-league teams were well-prepared and challenged the bigger sides to an impressive extent, suggesting that such FA Cup encounters can prove to be particularly important in the continuing development of the lower league clubs involved.

The interest which these types of match-ups generate is seemingly also growing, as - despite being shown live on national television - all three attracted increased attendances, to Hayes Lane in Bromley, The Hop Oast Stadium in Horsham, and the Badgers Sports Ground in Eltham where Cray Valley (PM) play.

Undoubtedly it would be wrong to over-romanticise these ties. All three venues have confusingly had multiple different names, thanks to various sponsorship deals. And only Cray Valley at that time played their home matches on grass, as both Bromley and Horsham had switched to artificial surfaces.

Even the local Horsham tourism and business promotion organisation isn’t complimentary about where the town’s football club now plays, pointing out that, prior to 2019, Hop Oast was best known for being the location for Horsham’s Household Waste Recycling Site, commonly referred to as the “Horsham Tip”.

Many long-standing supporters still grumble about losing their old Queen Street ground to developers, just after it hosted Horsham’s previous big FA Cup tie, against Swansea City 16 seasons earlier. That was in the heart of Horsham and covered in corrugated iron, as opposed to the current new-build, out-of-town on the by-pass.

Horsham’s most fanatical fans probably don’t help their club’s image, as the Lardy Army have become famous for leaving bars of lard around the opposition dugout in the professed belief that it brings good luck to their team. But it was another football curiosity made more-widely known by the FA Cup.

Instead, the classic magic of the cup was most evident last season at Cray Valley (PM), with a matchday club office in a garden shed at the Badgers Sports Ground, a venue which does not have a quagmire of a pitch but has a Quaggy End - named after the River Quaggy running behind one goal.

The South-East London side are ambitious and enthusiastic about improving, but making progress isn’t easy in shadow of their not-too-distant neighbours from Bromley, who this year moved on from being the leading non-league team among the capital’s clubs to securing promotion to the EFL.

However, in contrast to London’s numerical dominance of the Premier League, only three clubs from the city - Barnet, Wealdstone, plus Dagenham & Redbridge - are currently competing in the fifth-tier National League. And there are just a further three in the feeder National League South.

Those are Hampton & Richmond, Hornchurch, plus Enfield Town. Rather it is the capital’s commuter belt clubs filling the upper echelons of non-league football, with eight of the 24 teams in the National League, and 14 of 24 in National League South being from the Home Counties around London.

Some of those sides from domitory towns have also unexpectedly been illuminating the FA Cup in recent seasons. And that could well continue in the 2024-25 competition when the first round is played this weekend, with big home ties for Southend United, Sutton United, Boreham Wood and Chesham United.

The FA Cup proper begins this time in the Midlands, with Tamworth taking on Huddersfield Town, the 1922 Cup winners. But over the coming days there are exceptionally exciting encounters in prospect around the edges of London, not least with Charlton Athletic visiting Southend, a non-league club only since 2021.

Boreham Wood will welcome Leyton Orient in another testing trip for one of the capital’s EFL sides, while Sutton United versus Birmingham City is one of the home games for local non-league teams chosen for live television coverage, along with Chesham United versus Lincoln City.

They will seek to emulate last season’s heroics by Home Counties clubs. Three of the four non-league teams to reach the third round came from this area: Maidstone United, Aldershot Town, and Eastleigh, with the first two of the trio both being phoenix clubs, re-established after almost ceasing to exist.

Moreover, Maidstone were the only non-league side to get through to the fourth round, before progressing into the last 16 with an unforgettable victory away to Ipswich, to reach to within just two wins of playing at Wembley in a semi-final of the oldest and most famous cup competition in the world.

Meanwhile, Eastleigh had the incredible experience of playing a rare one-off game for probably the biggest prize imaginable for a smaller club - a visit from Manchester United in the FA Cup. Unfortunately, Eastleigh were beaten by Newport County, who instead hosted United in the glamour tie of the fourth round.

On the coldest night of the winter, Eastleigh’s players froze at the prospect in front of them. But it was only possible because they had earned a replay in the initial encounter away to Newport, and so knew their potential next opponents from the draw made between the original and return contests.

Similarly, Horsham and Cray Valley’s memorable matches were replays, giving these two Isthmian League sides the reward of a big home game for their heroics in achieving a draw in the original away ties - at a time when many of the country’s largest clubs were successfully plotting to abolish replays altogether.

As Charlton Athletic’s manager at the time, Michael Appleton, succinctly put it, if you want to avoid a replay then play to win through at the first time of asking. He blamed himself for making too many changes to his starting 11 for the original encounter with Cray Valley, and rectified it for the subsequent return match.

Home replays were huge prizes for lower league teams in the early rounds of the FA Cup. And they also contributed to helping fans get through the dark days of winter with something different from the Premier League, which more and more now completely overshadows everything else in the domestic game.

Without replays, clubs at the level of Cray Valley (PM) are less likely to get wider recognition. And that is a great shame, not just for them, but also for the football-watching population generally. Hopefully, at least early-round cup ties at lower league grounds will remain one of Britain’s most-cherishable sporting joys.