Sunday at 12:30pm - the biggest moment so far in the short history of the recently reformed FC Halifax Town - their reward for reaching the FA cup first round for the first time is a dream home draw against the highest ranked team (in terms of league tables anyway) in the draw. It's on ITV1, it's got all sorts of publicity for the club, and it'll be a huge crowd compared to what they're used to.
Of course FC Halifax Town are formed from the liquidated Halifax Town, who went into turmoil in the years after dropping from the Football League in 2002. The old club had their fair amount of scalps, and their furthest progress was when they reached the 5th round in 1953. Meanwhile Charlton reached the final in 1946 and 1947, losing in '46 then winning the FA Cup in 1947.
The game was selected for TV for the obvious 'David vs Goliath' situation - Halifax in the Blue Square North (equivalent of the 6th division if the Premier League is called division 1) against Charlton in League One, 3 divisions above. In fact just 3 seasons ago, when FC Halifax Town first began, the gap was a massive 6 divisions - the gap has been halved by 1 relegation for Charlton in 2008/9, and then successive promotions for Halifax in 2009/10 and 2010/11.
All of which would suggest this is likely to be a Charlton walkover, but at this stage of the FA cup the upset is always possible. Charlton know this all too well, having been knocked out in the 2009 FA cup first round to non league Northwich Victoria, a 1-0 loss to a late goal.
They progressed further last year, losing 3-0 to Tottenham in the Third Round. Not that they were particularly convincing along the way - it took a replay against both Barnet from the league below and then another replay against non league Luton Town to make it that far.
Halifax meanwhile were knocked out in the 4th qualifying round in the previous two seasons to Conference opposition, the round before the 1st round itself - so their progress this time is viewed as third time lucky. Along the way the "Shaymen" narrowly saw off Tadcaster Albion 2-1 at home in the 2nd qualifying round,
then they beat Lancaster City 3-0 as reported on this blog last month, and in the 4th qualifying round they scraped a 1-0 victory at Solihull Moors.
In terms of league form Halifax find themselves 11th in their league compared to Charlton 1st in theirs, and the contrasting league results so far show why:
Halifax: LWDDDDWLLWDWLWW
Charlton: WWWDWDWWWDWDLWWWW
In terms of goals, in 15 games Halifax have got 27 let 27 for a goal difference of 0, compared to in 17 games Charlton have scored 39 conceeded 14, a whopping +25. Halifax's top scorer is Lee Gregory with 9 league goals, Charlton's top scorer Bradley Wright Phillips is also League One's top scorer on 13 goals.
But anyone with any interest in this stage of the FA cup knows that league form doesn't necessarily mean anything in a televised first round match!
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