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  • Jim Staples 4:21 pm on February 1, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: 1 Leg On The Cup, FA Cup,   

    1 Leg On The Cup: The Road To Wembley (via Nantwich) 

    Throughout this season Tony 1 Leg and Johnny the Rhino have embarked on their own personal “Road to Wembley”. They’ve been blogging throughout and you can read all about their adventures right here on The Football Pubcast website. Coming next week will be their take on the 4th Round clash between QPR and Chelsea – but for now we’ve got some serious catching up to do!

    And we’re back in the room……… lots has happened since my last post back in September with Step 2 on the road to Wembley as Trafford FC beat Cheadle Town 3-0 in the preliminary round of this year’s cup. Myself (Tony 1 Leg) and a friend of mine Johnny the Rhino are 1 Leg On The Cup & we are 2 fat blokes from Manchester attempting to follow the FA Cup from start to finish in this seasons tournament. I have been blogging each game as we go but I’m sending the Football Pubcast guys a couple of ‘catch up’ posts before they very kindly post Step 11, QPR v Chelsea for us.

    After Trafford’s win they received a home draw against Northwich Victoria in Step 3 of our journey- the 1st round qualifying. A sunny Saturday on September 17th & the highlights of this day were Wayne Riley’s fantastic free kick & Vic’s captain, Kyle Armstrong’s penalty securing a 2-0 win for the Vic’s and I got both goals on video for YouTube! We also picked up a new blog & twitter follower -Kevin McGrath, Trafford’s man-of-the-match centre half. However the best thing about the day was a mad row with a Vic’s fan who told us, when talking about Raphael Evans the Northwich centre half: “Kicking isn’t his strong point!” so after we point out to her that kicking is a fairly important part of any footballers game she took a cheeky photo of me at half time & sent it to me later!

    Step 4: 2nd round qualifying – Northwich Vic’s at home to local rivals Nantwich Town. Another sunny day on Sat 1st October and the stand out memory of this game has to be Jim Rushe! Jim is the chairman of Northwich and after we had met him at the Trafford game, he had promised to look after us if the Vic’s got a home tie. He truly did just that. We were amazed that a chairman of a football club was treating us like we were distinguished guests of some importance instead of a couple of fall down drunks following the cup! Such a shame what’s happening at Northwich at the moment and we wish Jim & everyone at the club our best wishes. Nantwich won on the day 2-1 meaning we were off to the Weaver stadium in 2 weeks time.

    Step 5: 3rd RQ – Nantwich v Kendal Town. This was the first “scary” tie for us because we had declared right from the start that we would go to any replays on this cup run & if this one ended in a draw Kendal is a long way to go from Manchester for a mid-week game! The team sheet for this game showed 51 year old Dabbers manager & ex-Northern Ireland international, Jimmy Quinn on the bench. Even though changes were made he didn’t grace the grass at any time which was a shame. The Dabbers came from a goal behind to win 2-1 on the day but imy lasting memory will be the Rhino almost missing the game. He had turnstile issues and no amount of Lurpak was going to help squeeze him through the gap & into the Weaver Stadium!

    Step 6: The 4th and last of the qualifiers. Nantwich drawn at home again against Nuneaton Town with the chance of a big money game for the winners in the 1st round proper, but another scary game for us if it’s a draw! Word seemed to be spreading about us by now & BBC Radio Manchester invite me onto their Friday night non-league show the night before to give them a status update. Local online Cheshire based RedShift Radio must of been listening as they had me on their show too! The game was a very nail biting 1-0 win for the Dabbers who had to hold on with 10 men for the last 15 minutes under constant pressure from the Nunny boys. The whole market town of Nantwich celebrated when they found out they would be playing the MK Dons in the 1st round proper of the cup and that’s where 1LegOnTheCup was going next. Things for us suddenly got a massive boost courtesy of the FA & Budweiser!

     

  • Jim Staples 7:49 pm on January 26, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , FA Cup, , , , Wolves   

    Pubcast #65: With Head(s) held high 

    This week’s show represents the end of an era on the Football Pubcast; Mr Simon Head has stepped aside so we pay homage to our former leader. As always there’s plenty of footballing issues to discuss following our recent absence…

    • Weekend review
    • FA Cup Round 4 previews
    • Carling Cup reaction
    • Transfer Watch
    • The ‘Arry Redknapp court case
    • Mick McCarthy v Sporting Bet
    • Michael Carrick on euthanasia
    • plus much much more

    Pubcast #65: With (Simon) Head held high (mp3)

     

  • Michael Coxon 7:46 am on December 5, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Charlton Athletic, , , FA Cup, , , , , ,   

    Everyone wins with this weekend’s draws 

    So, two major tournament draws a the weekend and two corkers!

    Let’s start with Euro 2012. I can’t think of a better line-up for the tournament. England have got the nice balance of a massive game against France, a match with the stronger of the two host nations and a tie with our bogey team. Fabio Capello will walk away fairly happy from Friday’s draw knowing that, on paper, England should be favourites to win the group. However it will need to be a different England to the one who lost against France at Wembley last year because Laurent Blanc’s side look incredibly far removed from the cough and splutter of South Africa 2010.

    Should England make it through to the knock-out stages then they can look forward to a tie against regular foes from recent years Croatia, Fabio Capello’s home nation Italy, neighbours Ireland or recently vanquished minnows Spain…If England are going to progress beyond the quarter finals then it will be a huge but not necessarily impossible ask. Ireland on the other hand will need three huge performances to escape the group. Still, Croatia are beatable and expect to see Ray Houghton’s goal from USA 94 a thousand times between now and June. Oh, and Spain? Well just remember the opening game in South Africa and an excellent performance from the Swiss.

    The other groups look tasty for different reasons. The prospect of a Germany/Holland game always whets the appetite but throw in Portugal and the team that finished above them in qualifying (and neighbours of Germany) Denmark and it will probably prove the strongest of the four groups. On the other hand, Poland must fancy their chances of success on home soil lining up with Russia, Greece and Czech Republic, arguably the weakest team in each of their respective pots.

    Predictions: Germany, Holland, Spain and, very, very optimistically, England in the semis…Holland to win it

    And then we had the FA Cup draw, which through up a few ties between top clubs and minnows…Everton & Tamworth, Stoke & Gillingham (good luck lads!), Arsenal & Leeds…Manchester United and Manchester City…

    A few years ago that would have been a hearty joke at our smaller neighbours, now we’re looking at a revenge mission in early January. The 6-1 defeat hurt everyone connected to United so expect strong line-ups and a fiery game. Fergie loves the FA Cup and he won’t want to go out at the hands of City for two successive seasons.

    The talk will be all about the big Manchester derby but the rest of the draw looks good to. Teams like Cheltenham, Southend, Oldham and Bristol Rovers can all savour the prospect of facing Premier League elite and there’s a couple of cracking derbies thrown in to. I quite fancy Charlton to pull off an upset against an inevitably under-strength Fulham and Paolo Di Canio will be looking forward to hosting Wigan.

    My girlfriend asked me yesterday why I was sat watching two men speaking bad English and fiddling around with balls…and then why I watched the FA Cup draw (boom boom!). But it’s these little events and little details that make the season that bit more exciting. Whether you support Manchester United or Macclesfield Town, England or Ireland, what awaits over the coming weeks and months is excitement, anticipation and hope that when all the waiting is over you’ll emerge victorious.

     

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