The Wrong Type of Football

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s rant after his team’s FA Cup Semi-Final win over Chelsea about how unfair it was that his squad of 25 highly trained and extremely well rewarded professional athletes should have to play on Saturday afternoon having already played a game on Wednesday was typical of the Premier League managers’ mindsets.

 

“Unacceptable,” he called it, "I don't understand how we survived," he added, and all the while, up and down the country, non-League footballers, managers, officials, and supporters howled with laughter at a club complaining at playing three games in eight days while many teams below the Football League would look at that schedule as quite benign. Take National League South side Truro City for instance, in the time that Manchester City played those three games, they played four. Between 1^st April and 20^th April, Truro played ten league games; Manchester City played six matches.

 

Pep Guardiola
Picture - Football.ua, CC BY-SA 3.0, 

 

Even more extreme is the schedule faced by Colne FC of the North West Counties League who will play 14 games in April, six more than City will, and Colne are by no means unique. Thanks to postponements, it’s not unusual in non-League football for teams to play almost half of their league fixtures in the last two months of the season, and these are players holding down full-time jobs and driving themselves to away games after a day at work, yet the ones we are supposed to feel sorry for are the Premier League guys whose full-time job is playing football and whose every whim is indulged.

 

The fact that Guardiola’s complaint was about playing an FA Cup tie was significant. The FA Cup used to be the jewel in the crown of English football but it has become debased and devalued over the years; to be blunt, it’s an inconvenience for Premier League clubs. The demands of the vastly over inflated Champions League make FA Cup replays an inconvenience, especially since Uefa’s demand mean that they can’t be played on Champions League dates, hence their abolition from the Fifth Round onwards during the 2018-19 season.

 

This week, The FA announced that from next season there would be no replays in the FA Cup from the First Round onwards, a sop to the Premier League clubs (although since they don’t enter until the Third Round, replays in the First and Second Round are an irrelevance to them). Other than their proposal in 2014 to introduce B teams into the Football League, I don’t think that any announcement made by The FA has met with so much opposition and outrage.

 

At this point I have to say that despite many years of believing that FA Cup replays must be preserved at pretty much any cost, I’m beginning to become a little less vehement about that. It is in the first four rounds of the competition proper that replays have value; non-League or teams from the Football League’s bottom two divisions getting draws against higher level opposition and setting up money spinning replays have always part of the competition’s attraction, but in the competition’s early and later stages, the arguments for their retention are more difficult to sustain.

 

As we know, from the Third Round on, arranging replays can be difficult because of European football getting in the way, but in the qualifying rounds is there really much magic in a Preliminary Round replay between two Step 5 teams? This season for instance, Buckhurst Hill and Brantham Athletic met in the Extra-Preliminary Round. The first game, at Buckhurst Hill, attracted just 88 people and the replay drew in only 58 spectators. Gate receipts would not have covered the match officials’ fees and with it being 70 miles between the clubs’ respective grounds, travelling costs and the like would have resulted in both clubs losing money.

 

Brantham Athletic v Buckhurst Hill FA Cup Replay – Picture: Brantham Athletic

 

Phil Annets – the man behind the FA Cup Factfile Twitter account – has said, “Everyone talks about FA Cup replays being important for financial reasons and that's been the case for a small number of clubs, but the real reason replays are needed is for competition integrity. Replays give clubs disadvantaged by being drawn away a chance to take game to their ground.” While that’s an understandable point – and Cray Valley PM and Horsham, who earned replays against Charlton  Athletic and Barnsley respectively this season would undoubtedly agree -  a one off game could actually give lower league or non-League sides a better chance of progressing. Charlton won their replay at Cray Valley 6-1 while Horsham were beaten 3-0 by Barnsley (Barnsley were subsequently found to have fielded an ineligible player and Horsham were reinstated), but had those first games gone to penalties the playing field would have been levelled; there’s no reason why an Isthmian League side shouldn’t be able to beat a League One team in a shoot-out, even if they couldn’t over 90 minutes.

 

There have been angry suggestions that Football League and non-League clubs should boycott next season’s FA Cup, but that isn’t going to happen. Despite my increasing ambivalence towards FA Cup replays, what I do object to in The FA’s announcement – and many of the clubs that have issued statements expressing anger at replays being done away with seem to hold a similar view – is that a competition with more than 700 entrants is having its terms dictated by a tiny number of clubs, the 20 Premier League clubs, who largely view the FA Cup as an inconvenience.

 

The fact that the abolition of FA Cup replays from the First Round onwards is proposed from next season is no doubt driven by the increase in the number of entries in what we might now call the Not The Champions League next season when instead of 32 clubs in the group stage, there will be 36 in a rejigged league stage. Instead of it taking 13 games to win this bloated competition, it will take 15, at which point it’s worth remembering that for a Premier League team to win the FA Cup they need play only seven games.

 

When managers like Guardiola, or Jurgen Klopp, or Eric Ten Hag, complain about their teams having to play too many games, it is always the potential FA Cup replays that vex them, and I say ‘potential’ because Manchester City have had only 10 FA Cup replays this century, Manchester United have had 9, and Liverpool have had 12, so not exactly an onerous schedule.

 

Looked at logically, if the elite Premier League clubs are concerned about fixture congestion then the target for their objections should be the Champions League, but apparently a hypothetical FA Cup replay that might involve a 100 mile round trip once every few seasons is considered more taxing than travelling a couple of thousand miles several times a season for European cup games. How about increasing the number of teams in the Champions League to 64, but make it a straight knock-out with no group stage; it would take only 11 games to win the competition, freeing up some midweek dates to reinstate FA Cup replays

 

And there is the rub; the problem isn’t too much football, but rather the wrong type of football. The Champions League is more lucrative than the FA Cup, and the bottom line is, well the bottom line on the balance sheet.

Addendum 2nd May 2024:

Since I published this blog, the Premier League and the National League have announced a new competition for 2024-25 involving 16 clubs from the National League and 16 Premier League Under 21 teams, hence the National League's willingness to give up on FA Cup replays in the First and Second Rounds. In addition, the Premier League have once again floated the 39th Game idea - an additional fixture in the Premier League programme - to be played in the USA. Further proof - if we ever needed it - that there aren't too many games, just the wrong type.

There’s Only One F In Romford and We’re Going To Wemberlee!

At around five o’clock in the afternoon, on Saturday 6^th April, my Fitbit bleeped at me. My heart rate was apparently 131bpm and the device couldn’t detect me being active. Frankly I’m surprised it was only 131bpm because I was watching my team taking part in a penalty shoot-out with a place at Wembley Stadium in the Final of the Isuzu FA Vase at stake!

After eleven penalties apiece, the score was 9-9. Lincoln United’s Matthew Cotton – who had scored from the spot a week before in the First Leg of the Semi-Final, but who had had his first kick in the shoot-out saved by Romford keeper Jake Anderson – missed the target to hand Boro the advantage. Up stepped Jamie Hursit, who had come on as a substitute just minutes from the end and had scored his first spot-kick in the shoot-out. Hursit scored and for the first and possibly only time in my lifetime, Romford would be playing in the final of a national competition at the national stadium.

Jamie Hursit tucks away the winning penalty at Lincoln.

When I started watching Romford, back in the 1960s, their chances of playing in a Wembley final were zero. As a non-League team, there was absolutely no chance of getting there in the FA Cup, and as they were a semi-professional club, the FA Amateur Cup – in which Romford had played at Wembley in the first final there in 1949 – wasn’t open to them. Even after The FA abolished amateur status in 1974, replacing the Amateur Cup with the FA Trophy and the FA Vase, the best that Romford had done was in 1996-97 when the last sixteen of the FA Vase had been reached.

 

How did we get here? Well, last season Romford made it to the 4^th Round of the FA Vase before being gored by the Jersey Bulls in St Helier, but reward for that was an exemption from the first three rounds in this season’s competition, which started with a fairly low key 2^nd Round game at home to Crawley Green. The Spartan South Midlands League side were despatched 2-0 with the first goal after just 52 seconds from Michael Turner and another just 12 minutes later (a Kris Newby penalty), although Boro keeper Jake Anderson did have to save a late penalty to preserve his clean sheet.

Michael Turner (number 6) heads Boro's first goal against Crawley Green

Next to come to Boro’s new home at Rookery Hill (more on that later), were Mildenhall Town, second in their league and with a miserly defence according to their statistics. They went home beaten 3-0 – Ash Siddik, Hassan Nalbant, and Bradley Mott scoring Romford’s goals.

Action from the game against Mildenhall Town

Stanway Pegasus – who play one league below Boro at Step 6 in the Thurlow Nunn League Division One North – were next and Boro’s margin of victory should have been much more than 2-1 as numerous chances were created but not converted. A combination of narrowly off-target shots and good saves by Stanway keeper Sam Felgate restricted Boro to a two goal lead, and when Pegasus pulled one back eighteen minutes from the end, it meant for a nervy finish in which both teams were reduced to ten men. Finlay Dorrell and Charlie Morris (with a penalty that Pegasus vehemently contested long after the game had ended) scored the Boro goals.

Finlay Dorrell nets Boro's first goal against Stanway Pegasus

 

The draw for the Fifth Round pitted Romford against Hilltop of the Combined Counties League and immediately the draw was made it became clear that this wasn’t going to be an easy game to arrange, let alone play. Hilltop share at Hillingdon Borough, who were at home on the date of the Fifth Round. The rules of the competition state, “If for any reason a tie is unable to be played on the ground of the first drawn Club on a Saturday, the tie must be played on either the day before, i.e. on Friday, or the day after, i.e. on Sunday on the ground of the first drawn Club.” Hilltop announced that the game would be played at Uxbridge’s ground on the Sunday but after some wrangling, it was moved to Cobham FC’s ground and switched back to the Saturday. After conceding an early goal, Romford equalised through Ash Siddik just before half-time and two second half Charlie Morris goals clinched a 3-1 win to take Boro into the Quarter-Finals and a trip to North Greenford United, uncharted territory in every respect.

 

Charlie Morris (partly hidden) scores against Hilltop

A week before the North Greenford game, Boro were dealt a body blow when two players – leading scorer Hassan Nalbant and defender Junior Luke – were sent off in a 2-0 league win at Barking resulting in their being suspended for the Quarter Final. Add a suspension for influential midfield player Kris Newby, and preparations were by no means ideal. As it turned out, a virtuoso performance from defender Darren Phillips, thrust into an attacking role, helped Boro to a 1-0 win thanks to a goal by Remi Sutton.

Darren Phillips celebrates the Quarter-Final Win

 After the game every Romford supporter was wearing a soppy grin and using the word ‘surreal’ a lot. Talk inevitably turned to who we would draw in the Semi-Final: Our Essex Senior League rivals Great Wakering Rovers? Bookies favourites Worcester City? Lincoln United were the name drawn out after Romford’s and on a thankfully warm and dry Saturday at the end of March, a season’s best crowd of 561 turned up at Rookery Hill for the First Leg.

 
Rookery Hill has only been Boro’s home since November 2023 when the club took over the lease from East Thurrock United, who had sadly folded in August 2023. A home of the club’s own and the income from bar and catering that was missing in the groundshares the club has had over the years was certainly a benefit, but the game itself started in horrendous fashion. Within ten minutes, Romford had had a player sent off and conceded a goal to a penalty; hardly ideal. A second half goal from Finlay Dorrell drew Boro level only for Lincoln to score again right at the death, but in time added on Boro equalised through Ash Siddik: 2-2 going into the Second Leg.

Ash Siddik receives his team-mates' congratulations after his equalising goal against Lincoln

 
The sun shone for the second game and Romford dominated proceedings - especially in the second half despite playing into a strong wind - carving out some decent chances but being thwarted by the Lincoln goalkeeper on a number of occasions. It ended goal-less, and the penalty shoot-out seemed to favour Lincoln, who had already won seven shoot-outs including four in their Vase run.

 
Which is where we started, as wonderfully, incredibly, Boro won the shoot-out (thank God for the Hursits, we said afterwards as they had scored three of Boro’s ten penalties) but despite objectively knowing that we were going to Wembley, did we actually believe it? No, of course not, and even now it’s hard to accept.

 
Naturally, Lincoln were mightily disappointed, but it says a lot for the character of their players, officials, and supporters that they were gracious in defeat. The two Semi-Final ties were a brilliant showcase for non-League football, two cracking games played in good spirits, two sets of fans mingling, chatting, and drinking together.
 
The other Semi-Final took an extra week to settle as the game at Worcester City was postponed, but after a penalty shoot-out of their own, Great Wakering Rovers made it through. The last time an Essex Senior League team reached Wembley was 1984 and it’s only the fifth time in 50 years that two teams from the same league have contested the Final.
 
Unusually, considering how tense I can sometimes get before even the most routine of league games or mundane cup ties, I have been preternaturally calm throughout this cup run. At no point have I gone to a game expecting anything other than a Romford victory. Okay, it’s easier to feel that way when your team are winning more often than not, which Romford have this season, but even so, it has been remarkably out of character for me. How calm I’ll be when I see Romford step out onto the Wembley turf on Saturday, 11^th May, remains to be seen.

 

Some useful links:

Romford FC website: https://www.romfordfc.com/

Romford FC Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/RomfordFC

The FA – FA Vase page: https://www.thefa.com/competitions/fa-vase

Non-League Finals Ticket Sales: https://www.wembleystadium.com/events/2024/Non-League-Finals-Day-2024