It doesnt seem that long ago that Wembley saw Manchester United lift the FA Cup, but the past weekend saw the long journey start again. The Emirates FA Cup qualifying round had an Extra Premlinary Round. A grand total of 736 clubs entered the competition with many having dreams of walking up those stairs and lifting the trophy of the greatest domestic competition in the world. The Extra preliminary round would see 184 of the clubs do battle for a place in the next prelim round. Clubs would know their possible opponents as the Extra Prelim and Prelim rounds were drawn.
One of the extra prelim ties would see two of the oldest clubs in the world do battle. The match saw fourth oldest club Worksop Town beat Hallam FC. The home side also picked up handy £1500 from the FA Cup fund for their troubles. For Worksop they now play Ashton Athletic on 20th August. Of course whilst there were the oldest teams featuring the FA Cup, there were nations making their debuts. Hollands & Blair beat YMCA Horsham with a last second winner. Ashby Ivanhoe beat the Midlands club Quorn. Quorn with no connection to the non meat food product, have seen some big names play for them. The likes of Dion Dublin and Luke Varney have in their career turned out for the club.
Of course the FA Cup always creates some exciting games and there were goals aplenty as Flackwell Heath beat Baldock Town 6-3, Hailsham and Crawley Down Gatwick saw out a 7-5 result where Hailsham were at one point 5-1 down. Whilst there were teams in several goal thrillers, there were those teams who were having a severely bad day at the office. Cadbury Heath put seven past Folland Sports, Illford stuck nine past Burnham, Gorleston shipping eight. The team with definitely a game to forget were Huntingdon Town. For the Cambridge club, the start of their domestic season seemingly following on from the last where they were relegated.
In the later round of the FA Cup we see the big giants with the recognisable names such as Liverpool, Chelsea Arsenal and Manchester United, the early rounds though see some interesting club names. West Allotment Celtic of the Northern League Division, Sporting Khalsa of the Midland League and Bemerton Heath Harlequins of the Sydenham Wessex League show the range of clubs from the various leagues all looking for glory.
Whilst there are still a few rounds till the giantkilling sprees start, for me the number of clubs wanting to take part just shows how much this competition is valued and respected up and down the country. In the prelim round, be sure to look out for Guernsey who host their first home cup tie.