So the draw for the FA cup 4th qualifying round was made on Monday - the final hurdle for all the non league teams to getting to the FA cup 1st round. The Blue Square Premier (Conference) teams are entered into the draw for this, meanwhile some teams have now negotiated as many as 5 rounds already to get this far and would be rubbing their hands at the prize money won from each round and the prospect of a potential big tie against a Conference team.
Of course needless to say negotiating this round sets up the much much bigger prospect of maybe drawing a well supported league team - the money, attention and even possible tv coverage for this would be astronomical for those in the lower reaches of the non league pyramid.
I'm continuing to go to a match for each round until games are either too far away to consider/afford transport or ticket prices are too expensive. So with 32 matches drawn I whittled down the list to the games closest to where I am and those which can be got to easily enough (around 2 hours or less) from Mossley via public transport.
The list came down to 3 matches:
Droylsden vs Blyth Spartans
Kidsgrove Athletic vs Bradford Park Avenue
Nantwich Town vs Nuneaton Town
Now Droylsden vs Blyth Spartans is a game with two teams in the same division (the Blue Square North, or level 2 of the non league pyramid where the Conference is level 1). In the other two games it's a case of the underdog at home - Kidsgrove Athletic (level 4) vs Bradford Park Avenue (level 3) and Nantwich Town (level 3) vs Nuneaton Town (level 2). So I've ruled out Droylsden.
The other two I'm torn between, both look like nice enough places to go to, both involve away teams with supporter numbers bigger than most teams in their league and very big compared to the home teams they'll be visiting.
Kidsgrove or Nantwich, that is the question!
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