billsportsmaps.com

March 6, 2013

2012-13 FA Cup, Sixth Round Proper: location-map and current attendance data of the 8 clubs / Plus captioned illustrations of the 8 clubs’ managers & top scorer(s).

Filed under: 2012-13 FA Cup — admin @ 11:44 am

Note: click on image below to see map with chart

2012-13_fa-cup_sixth-round_post_b.gif
2012-13 FA Cup, Sixth Round Proper: location-map and current attendance data of the 8 clubs


Below, the 4 fixtures
2012-13_fa-cup_sixth-round_match-ups_e.gif

bbc.co.uk/ FA Cup (bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fa-cup).

Below are the 8 clubs who have made it to the 2012-13 FA Cup Sixth Round, listed in order of league placement within the Premier League/Football League ladder (league tables from 6 March 2013), with captioned illustrations featuring each club’s manager and each club’s current top scorer(s) [players on current rosters/goals from all competitions]…

-(#1/1st Level), 1st place in the Premier League, Manchester United.
Below, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson; and their current top scorer, Robin van Persie, with 23 goals in all competitions (19 LG, 3 EU, 1 FA).
manchester-united_alex-ferguson_robin-van-persie_gingham-jersey_b.gif
Photo credits above –
independent.co.uk.
Jamie McDonald/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Background image in illustration above is an enlarged segment of photo of the gingham-plaid 2012-13 MUFC home jersey, and was Unattributed at caughtoffside.com.

-(#2/1st Level), 2nd place in the Premier League, Manchester City.
Below, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini; and current top scorers Edin Džeko with 13 goals (12 LEA, 1 EU) & Sergio Agüereo with 13 goals (9 LEA, 2 EU, 2 FA).
manchester-city_roberto-mancini_sergio-aguero_edin-dzeko_h.gif
Photo credits above -
Roger Goraczniak at en.wikipedia.com.
Getty Images via telegraph.co.uk.
atomicsoda.com/man-city/all/18-jan-2013.

-(#4/1st Level), 4th place in the Premier League, Chelsea.
Below, Chelsea interim manager Rafael Benítez; and current top scorer Juan Mata, with 17 goals (10 LEA, 3 EU, 1 FA, 2 LC, 1 OTHER).
chelsea_rafa-benitez_juan-mata_i.gif
Photo credits above –
Unattributed at independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/rafael-benitez-rant-what-the-chelsea-interim-manager-said-8514341.html.
Unattributed at sportinglife.com.

-(#6/1st Level), 6th place in the Premier League, Everton.
Below, Everton manager David Moyes; and current top scorer Marouanne Fellaini with 12 goals (11 LEA, 1 FA).
everton_david-moyes_m-fellaini_i.gif
Photo credits above -
Alex Livesey/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
Unattributed at click-sports.com.

-(#17), 17th place in the Premier League, Wigan Athletic.
Below, Wigan Athletic manager Roberto Martinez; and current top scorer Arouna Koné with 10 goals (8 LEA, 2 FA).
Illustrated article from Dailymail.co.uk, from 13 April 2012, by Chris Wheeler ‘From pre-match meals at Asda to walking down Wembley way! How Martinez and his amigos started a Wigan revolution‘ (dailymail.co.uk/sport/footbal).

wigan-athletic_roberto-martinez_arouna-kone_b.gif
Photo credits above -
Chris Brunskill/Getty Images Europe via zimbio.com.
wiganlatics.co.uk.

-(#33/2nd Level), 13th place in the Football League Championship, Blackburn Rovers.
Below, Blackburn Rovers’ manager Michael Appleton; and current top scorer Jordan Rhodes with 21 goals (20 LEA, 1 FA).
blackburn-rovers_michael-appleton_jordan-rhodes_.gif
Photo credits above -
Unattributed at 1.skysports.com.
Empics via bbc.co.uk/football

-(#35/2nd Level), 15th place in the Football League Championship, Millwall.
Below, Millwall manager Kenny Jackett; and current top scorers Andy Keogh with 6 goals (6 LEA) & James Henry with 6 goals (5 LEA, 1 FA).
millwall_kenney-jackett_andy-keogh_james-henry_e.gif
Photo credits above -
PA via dailymail.co.uk.
PA at sportsmole.co.uk.
Simon Galloway/EMPICS via london24.com.

..

-(#42/2nd Level), 22nd place in the Football League Championship, Barnsley.
Below, Barnsley manager David Flitcroft; and current top scorer Chris Dagnall, with 9 goals (4 LEA, 3 FA, 2 LC).
barnsley-fc_david-flitcroft_chris-dagnall_b.gif
Photo credits above -
Unattributed at football.co.uk.
Unattributed at 1.skysports.com.

___
Thanks to soccerway.com for attendance figures.
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2012–13 FA Cup‘.
Thanks to bbc.co.uk/football for the Fixture list image on the map page.

February 12, 2013

2012-13 FA Cup, Fifth Round Proper (including one Fourth Round replay): location-map and current attendance data of the 17 clubs.

Filed under: 2012-13 FA Cup — admin @ 6:27 pm

2013/02/2012-13_fa-cup_fifth-round-proper_post_c.gif
2012-13 FA Cup, Fifth Round Proper (including one Fourth Round replay): location-map and attendances of the 17 clubs


bbc.co.uk/ FA Cup (bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fa-cup).

Note: 15 of the clubs shown on the map page have qualified for the 2012-13 FA Cup 5th Round Proper, and 2 of the clubs shown on the map – Brentford and Chelsea (both from West London) – will play their 4rh Round replay this weekend at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge. On 22 January, third division side Brentford London held on for a 2-2 draw against the Premier League giants Chelsea {see this article by Phil McNulty at guardian.co.uk, ‘Brentford 2-2 Chelsea‘}. [The replay was unable to be re-scheduled until now.] Though Brentford’s Griffin Park and Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge are only about 8 km. (or 5 miles) apart, Brentford and Chelsea had not played each other since an FA Cup tie in 1950 {see this article from WSC.co.uk from January 2013 by Chris Dean, ‘Brentford fans are upbeat about their club again – Bees improving on and off the pitch‘.}

Full fixture list is at the far right-hand side of the map page.

Televised matches – see this (en.wikipedia.org).

___
Thanks to soccerway.com for attendance figures (for Football League clubs, and Conference clubs).
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2012–13 FA Cup‘.
Thanks to bbc.co.uk/football for the Fixture list image on the map page.

January 26, 2013

2012-13 FA Cup, Fourth Round Proper, chart: all the upsets from 25-27 January 2013 / Plus illustrations of the Luton over Norwich upset & the Oldham over Liverpool upset.

Filed under: 2012-13 FA Cup — admin @ 3:10 pm

[ Note: Here is the 2012-13 FA Cup 4th Round Proper Map post. ]

bbc.co.uk/ FA Cup (bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fa-cup).

Norwich City 0-1 Luton Town
85 places and 4 league levels separated the 2 clubs.

Video highlights, ‘Norwich 0 Luton 1‘ (tvgolo.com).

The first FA Cup upset since 1989 which involved a Non-League side beating a first division club occurred today. Luton Town of the 5th division Conference National stunned Premier League club Norwich City in Norfolk by the score of 0-1. An impressive crowd of 26,521 saw the match at the 27,010-capacity Carrow Road ground. The Hatters, managed by Paul Buckle, scored in the 80th minute as sub Scott Rendell made a sliding stab at the ball crossed over from another substituted player, JJ O’Donnell. [The previous upset of a Non-League club over a first division club in the FA Cup took place in January 1989, when Sutton United upset First Division club Coventry City 3-2 on a muddy pitch in front of an overflow crowd at Gander Green Lane in Surrey {see this iillustration of Sutton United 3-2 Coventry City, 1988-89 FA Cup 3rd Round [7 Jan. 1989] from a post I made for the 2011-12 FA Cup 2nd Round}.]

norwich_0-1_Luton_2012-13_fa-cup_4th-round_scott-rendell_c.gif
Photocredits above –
Blue Square/PA via guardian.co.uk.
breakingnews.ie.

Luton Town are now only the 7th Non-League club since WW II to make it to the FA Cup 5th Round Proper.

From dailymail.co.uk/football, from 26 January 2012, ‘Norwich 0 Luton 1: Super sub Rendell the hero as non-league Hatters stun Canaries‘.

From TwoHundrdPercent.net, from 27 Jan. 2013, by Ian King, ‘Luton Town’s FA Cup Win Should Not Be Understated‘.

Oldham Athletic 3-2 Liverpool
56 places and 2 league levels separated the 2 clubs.
Attendance for the match, which was at the 10,628-capacity Boundary Park in Oldham, Greater Manchester, was 10,295.

Video highlights, ‘Oldham 3-2 Liverpool‘ (footreview.net).

oldham_3-2_liverpool_2012-13_-fa-cup_4th-round_matt-smith_reece-wabara_paul-dickov_d.gif
Photo credits above -
telegraph.co.uk.
Reuters via mirror.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/oldham-3-2-liverpool-match-report-1559452.
yorkpress.co.uk.
Getty Images via mirror.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/oldham-3-2-liverpool-match-report .
mcfc.com.

2013/01/2012-13_fa-cup_fourth-round-upsets_h.gif


January 25, 2013

2012-13 FA Cup, Fourth Round Proper: location-map and attendances of the 32 clubs.

Filed under: 2012-13 FA Cup — admin @ 11:21 am

2012-13_fa-cup_fourth-round-proper_post_.gif
2012-13 FA Cup, Fourth Round Proper: location-map and attendances of the 40 clubs


bbc.co.uk/ FA Cup (bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fa-cup).

From Guardian.co.uk/Football, from 25 January 2013, by Paul Doyle, ‘Ten things we are looking forward to in the FA Cup this weekend‘.

Televised matches, see this.

My last post on the FA Cup had a chart with all the upsets, ‘2012-13 FA Cup, Third Round Proper, chart: all the upsets from 5 January 2013, plus the 2 best-results for a lower-placed club which ended in a draw.’
___

Thanks to soccerway.com for attendance figures (for Football League clubs, and Conference clubs).
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2012–13 FA Cup‘.
Thanks to bbc.co.uk/football for the Fixture list image on the map page.

January 5, 2013

2012-13 FA Cup, Third Round Proper, chart: all the upsets from 5 January 2013, plus the 2 best-results for a lower-placed club which ended in a draw.

Filed under: 2012-13 FA Cup — admin @ 1:59 pm

[ Note: In past years I would update results in the FA Cup latter rounds by just updating the original map post, but I have come to realize that that was confusing to the reader and probably under-cut my traffic, so hence this stand-alone post. Here is the 2012-13 FA Cup 3rd Round Proper Map post. ]

bbc.co.uk/ FA Cup (bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fa-cup).

Further below, in a hopefully-easy-to-read chart-form, are all the results, from the first day of the 2012-13 FA Cup Third Round, which involved a lower-placed club defeating a higher-placed club (ie, all the Cup upsets). Also listed are the two best results for a lower-placed club which ended up as a draw (thus forcing a replay).

The biggest upset was Conference National/5th division side Macclesfield Town over the second-division leaders Cardiff City by the score of 2-1. Macclesfield Town will now play in the FA Cup 4th Round for the first time in the club’s 139-year history. Two goals by the Silkmen’s Matthew Barnes-Homer in a 3-minute span (in the 85th and the 88th minutes [the second goal from the spot]) saw Wales’ biggest club fall to the tiny Cheshire club, who have been suffering an otherwise trying spell stuck back in Non-League football this season. Macclesfield had maintained Football League status for 15 seasons prior to their relegation in May 2012. Attendance at Macclesfield Town’s ground, Moss Rose, has plummeted 30% or so this season (in league matches), to just 1,500 or so per game, versus 2,227 per game last year in League Two. (Attendance was 3,165 there today). And as they sat just 10th in the Conference (and now are in 11th place there), Macclesfield will most likely be stuck in Non-League football again next season. In other words, MTFC had plenty to play for, and needed this. The embattled manager of Macclesfield Town, Steve King, sure needed this, because many of the club’s more vocal supporters have recently been calling for his sacking. Meanwhile, within the Cardiff City camp, truth be told, Cardiff City had bigger fish to fry – namely, finally winning promotion to the Premier League after falling agonizingly short for 3 straight seasons. And the fact that Cardiff manager Malky Mackay fielded an entirely different XI than from the team’s previous league-match starting eleven shows you that Cardiff City were treating this Cup match with the disdain that many Premier League clubs often do. But try telling that to the rookie-laden Cardiff squad right now. Because, despite the fact that this loss will probably not put a dent in their promotion push, it’s not easy living down the fact that the Bluebirds – I mean the Red Dragons – just lost to a team that is 3 leagues below them and 81 league places below them.

From guardian.co.uk/football, from 5 January 5 2013, by Jamie Jackson, ‘Macclesfield’s Matthew Barnes-Homer gives Cardiff both barrels in Cup‘.

The second biggest upset of the day went to another Non-League club – Luton Town (the highest-drawing club outside the Football League with regular crowds of around 6,000 per game). The Hatters of Bedfordshire, who are managed by former Torquay United and Bristol Rovers manager Paul Buckle, held their own versus struggling second-division club Wolverhampton. And the club from the northern-edge of the London commuter-belt won it with a 46th minute goal on a sublime volley by Alex Lawless, after he was set-up nicely by a Jon Shaw cross. There were 9,638 in attendance at Luton’s Kenilwoth Road. Maybe this will spur on Luton to finally put up a successful promotion drive to get back in the Football League where a club of their size belongs. Wolves’ manager Stale Solbakken was sacked 4 hours after the humiliating defeat.

The third biggest upset of the day went to manager Paul Dickov’s Oldham Athletic, who though one goal down after 18 minutes (and playing away), ended up beating Nottingham Forest 2-3 on two goals by Robbie Simpson in a four-minute-span (54′, 58′) (the second one on an arcing header off a nice whipped cross by Dean Furman); and just 3 minutes after that, a 61st minute goal by Jose Baxter off a free kick. Nottingham Forest, the only club, anywhere, that has ever won the European title more times than their national title, look without a clue and have not won the 3 matches since they inexplicably hired that enemy-of-attractive-passing-football, Alex MacLeish, last month. As one Forest fan commented here (4th comment/glambear), ‘McLeish. You wouldn’t wish him to your worst enemy. Even Leeds. Well, maybe Leeds…’.

The chart below will be updated (if need be) as results come in on Sunday and Monday.
[Note: league placements are as from the start of each club's 2012-13 FA Cup 3rd Round match.]
2012-13_fa-cup_3rd-round_upsets_jan2013_f.gif
2012-13 FA Cup 3rd Round Upsets


January 1, 2013

2012-13 FA Cup, Third Round Proper: location-map and attendances of the 64 clubs.

Filed under: 2012-13 FA Cup — admin @ 1:41 pm

2013/01/2012-13_fa-cup_3rd-round-proper_post_c.gif
2012-13 FA Cup, Third Round Proper: location-map and attendances of the 64 clubs


bbc.co.uk/ FA Cup (bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fa-cup).

From guardian.co.uk/football, from 30 January 2012, by Barney Ronay, ‘Week ahead: our muddy romance with the FA Cup
For all the sense of feeling fatally diminished, the iconic football tournament has somehow retained its distantly ennobling quality’
.

Televised matches, see this.

The smallest club still in the competition – Hastings United

Before this season, Hastings United had not won a single FA Cup [Qualifying rounds] match since 2006. Hastings had in fact only made the 1st Round Proper once, in 2002 (losing to Stevenage Borough). Hastings United, nicknamed the Arrows, are a semi-professional Isthmian League/ Ryman Premier League/7th level club that was established in 1894. This season, Hastings leveraged two winnable Cup draws into their first-ever appearance in the FA Cup 3rd Round. There was some good fortune involved (via favorable draws), because Hastings did not have to play any Football League clubs, or even any 5th-Level clubs, for that matter, to get to the rarefied atmosphere of the 3rd Round (which of course is when Premier League and League Championship clubs enter the competition). But that does not diminish this tiny club’s achievement in making it to the 3rd Round. To make it to the 2nd Round Proper, Hastings beat Conference North side Bishop’s Stortford 1-2 on 3 November 2012. To make it to the 3rd Round Proper, the Arrows beat another Conference North club, Harrogate Town, in a 2nd Round replay on 13 December 2012 at Hastings, in a match which which went to penalties (see illustration below). For that 2nd Round replay match, Hastings United were praised for providing around 1,000 tickets, free, to local youth (that is brilliant). That match was a sell-out with 4,008 in attendance {match report from bbc.co.uk/football, here}. Now for the 3rd Round, Hastings have drawn second-division side Middlesbrough and will travel north on Saturday the 5th of January to North Yorkshire to play Boro at the Riverside Stadium there in coastal Yorkshire. Hastings United don’t really expect to pull off an upset of giant-killing proportions, but it will be a nice day out for the Arrows’ faithful and the ticket-revenue-split the club will receive will probably sustain the small club for a couple of years (they’ll use the cash for improvements to their ground plus maybe they can splurge on a hotshot postman/striker or two). As Hastings United chairman Dave Walters said, ‘We’ve got to use this cup run to build a platform to try and move up at least one league if we possibly can’ {see this article from sportyhub.org}. Hastings United are from East Sussex on England’s southern coast. A little under one thousand years ago, Hastings was the nearest town to the site of the Norman invasion in 1066, which was the last time that England was successfully invaded, and which installed in 11th century England a then-new version of the ruling-class (parasites), and which begat the fraught relationship that the English have had, ever since, with France {see ”Bayeux Tapestry (en.wikipedia.org)}.

Hastings United currently average 409 per game (in home league matches), which is fourth-best out of 22 in the Ryman Premier League {Ryman Premier attendance figures, here (nonleague.co.uk/leagues/_/isthmian-league/premier-division-11/)}. They have drawn 5 straight matches in the league and sit 17th. Hastings United’s ground is The Pilot Field, which is a small Non-League-type ground that doesn’t really have any noteworthy features except for that fact that it features a sloped pitch {photos of which you can see in my post on the 2nd Round, here}. Hastings United wear claret and sky blue colors. They are led by player/manager [defender] Sean Ray. Here is the club’s website: http://www.hastingsunitedfc.co.uk/ .

hastings_united_the-pilot-field_fa-cup_2nd-round-replay_win-over-harrogate_c.gif
Photo credits above -
soccernet.espn.go.com.
Tony Coombes at hastingsobserver.co.uk.
bbc.co.uk.

___
Thanks to soccerway.com for attendance figures (for Football League clubs, and Conference clubs).
Thanks to nonleague.co.uk for attendance figures (for the 7th-level club, Hastings United).
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2012–13 FA Cup‘.
Thanks to bbc.co.uk/football for the Fixture list image on the map page.
.
Thanks to everybody who checked out my maps and who read my posts in 2012. Special thanks to everybody who made comments to my posts in 2012. And thanks to anyone who might have tweeted about my posts in 2012 (due to web-traffic spikes, I am pretty sure a couple of folks did).

November 27, 2012

2012-13 FA Cup, Second Round Proper: location-map and attendances of the 40 clubs.

Filed under: 2012-13 FA Cup — admin @ 10:16 pm

2012/12/2012-13_fa-cup_2nd-round_post_c.gif
2012-13 FA Cup, Second Round Proper: location-map and attendances of the 40 clubs


bbc.co.uk/ FA Cup (bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fa-cup).

The map shows the 40 clubs that survived the First Round of the 2012-13 FA Cup. The Second Round Proper will take place on Friday 30 November, Saturday 1 December, Sunday 2 December, and Monday 3 December. Televised matches are the 2 matches on Sunday, and the Monday match, see this ‘2012-13 FA Cup/ broadcasting‘ (en.wikipedia.org).

The biggest story in the Second Round Proper is the first-ever meeting of the franchise that stole Wimbledon FC – MK Dons FC – versus AFC Wimbledon, the club which was formed in 1992 immediately after then-Wimbledon FC owner Pete Winkelman announced his intention to move Wimbledon FC 56 miles (90 km.) north to Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire. Distraught fans organized a new club and AFC Wimbledon started in June 2002 and began play 2 months later in the 9th Level, and the club has won promotion 5 times since then, and are currently in their second season in the Football League. So the question is…Why didn’t Pete Winkelman just buy an existing club in the Milton Keynes area and then try to move them up the football leagues ladder, like AFC Wimbledon later did, and, you know, like every other club in the history of English football has done? The answer is that Pete Winkleman felt he was entitled to contravene over one hundred years of tradition and behavior, and take a club away from it’s supporters, simply because he could… and then 2 of the 3 guys that the FA entrusted to make a decision on this, one of whom is a lawyer, agreed, because in their infamous words, keeping Wimbledon FC in South London where all their fans were was ‘not in the wider interests of football’.

So MK Dons will forever be tainted, and will always be a pariah, and will be known ad infinitum as the franchise that thought it deserved to buy it’s way into the football league by ripping a club out of South London and leaving it’s supporters adrift without a club, and forced to start all over again.

Here are 3 recent articles on the subject…
From WSC.co.uk, from 16 Nov.2012, by Andy Brassell, ‘AFC Wimbledon must face the reality of MK Dons – But they don’t have to enjoy it‘.

From Guardian.co.uk/football, from 17 Nov.2012, by Daniel Taylor, ‘Nothing crazy about AFC Wimbledon fans’ grievances against MK Dons‘.

[Note: the following article has lots of photos, including photos of Wimbledon FC's old ground in South London, Plough Lane]…From DailyMail.co.uk, from 13 Nov. 2012, by Laura Williamson, ‘As the historic first meeting between MK Dons and AFC Wimbledon looms, here’s why this potential Cup grudge match will be a ‘crazy game’ for the Crazy Gang‘.

Here is the current episode of the Football League-based podcast called We Are Going Up, which features some good coverage of the build-up to the MK Dons v. AFC Wimbledon match, ‘wearegoingup.co.uk/2012/11/26/Episode 60 MK Dons v AFC Wimbledon‘.

    The 4 smallest clubs in the 2012-13 FA Cup Second Round Proper,
    as measured by current average attendance (from home league matches) –
    Hastings United, Dorchester Town, Harrogate Town, and Alfreton Town.

Hastings United. Hastings, East Sussex. Hastings United play at The Pilot Field, which opened in 1920. Hastings are the smallest club still alive in the 2012-13 FA Cup, as well as the lowest-placed (Hastings are in the Ryman Premier League [aka the Isthmian League], which is a 7th Level league). They currently are in 17th place in the Ryman Prem. In the First Round of the 2012-13 FA Cup, Hastings United upset Conference North (6th division) club Bishop’s Stortford by the score of 1-2, at Bishop’s Stortford, with Zac Attwood’s 88th-minute strike allowing Hastings United to advance to the Second Round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history. On 1 December, Hastings United travel north to North Yorkshire to face 6th division side Harrogater Town (in a match that will be broadcast live in the USA and Canada [on Fox Sports Plus]).
hastings-united-fc_the-pilot-field_.gif
Photo credits above –
stadiumsandcities.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/hastings-3-blackfield-langley-0.
thehovian.co.uk/2012/07/23/hastings-united-3-2-albion.

Dorchester Town. Dorchester, Dorset. Dorchester Town play at The Avenue Stadium, which opened in 1990. Dorchester Town are a 6th Level club in the Conference South, where they have played for 9 consecutive seasons (since 2004-05, when the 6th division was instituted in Non-League football). They currently are in 10th place in the Conference South. In the First Round of the 2012-13 FA Cup, Dorchester Town upset League Two (4th division) club Plymouth Argyle in Dorchester by the score of 1-0, before a crowd of 3,196 at the Avenue Stadium. The winning goal was scored by former Plymouth Argyle youth-team-player Jake Gosling. On 1 December Dorchester Town travel to the north commuter belt of Londin to Luton to face Conference side Luton Town.
dorchester-town-fc_the-avenue-stadium_b.gif
Photo credits above -
lutontown.co.uk (lutontown.co.uk).
PA via bbc.co.uk/sport/football.

Harrogate Town. Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Harrogate Town play at Wetherby Road [also known as CNG Stadium for sponsorship reasons]. Harrogate Town are a 6th Level club in the Conference North, where they have played for 9 consecutive seasons (since 2004-05, when the 6th division was instituted in Non-League football). They currently are in 14th place in the Conference North. In the First Round of the 2012-13 FA Cup, Harrogate Town upset League Two (4th division) club Torquay United down on the South Coast there in Torbay by the score of 0-1, with the winning goal scored by the Nigerian-born Chibuzor Chilaka. On 1 December Harrogate Town host the lowest-placed club still alive in the 2012-13 FA Cup, the 7th division club Hastings United.
harrogate-town-fc_wetherby-road-ground_.gif
Photo and image credits above -
thedribblingcode.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/sat-29-oct-2011-harrogate-town-v-hyde-conf-north/.
harrogatetownafc.com/club-shop/club-shop/.
bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view.

Alfreton Town. Alfreton, Derbyshire. Alfreton Town play at North Street, which is also known as the Impact Arena for sponsorship reasons. Alfreton Town are a 5th Level club in the Conference National, in their second-ever season in the 5th division. They currently are in 12th place in the Conference. In the First Round of the 2012-13 FA Cup, Alfreton Town beat fellow Conference side Wrexham 2-4 at the Racecourse Ground in North Wales. Alfreton Town’s Ben Tomlinson struck twice for the Reds to secure victory, in the 79th minute and in the 92nd munute, before he was sent off for inciting the crowd with his celebration. On 1 December, Alfreton Town host a televised FA Cup Second Round match versus the Est London-based League One (3rd division) side Leyton Orient.
alfreton-town_north-street_alfreton-derbyshire_.gif
Photo credits above –
parkin1s at.com media.beta.photobucket.com.
theballissquare.co.uk/alfreton-town.

___
Thanks to soccerway.com for attendance figures (for Football League clubs, and Conference clubs).
Thanks to nonleague.co.uk for attendance figures (for the 7th-level club, Hastings United.
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2012–13 FA Cup‘.
Thanks to bbc.co.uk/football for the Fixture list image on the map page.

October 31, 2012

2012-13 FA Cup, First Round Proper: location-map and attendances of the 80 clubs.

Filed under: 2012-13 FA Cup — admin @ 9:36 pm

2012-13_fa-cup_1st-round_post_f.gif
2012-13 FA Cup, First Round Proper: location-map and attendances of the 80 clubs


BBC/Football/FA Cup (bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fa-cup).

The 2012–13 FA Cup is the 132nd season of the competition. The FA Cup is open to all English clubs (plus a few Welsh clubs). It is the world’s oldest association football knock-out competition. 758 clubs were accepted into this season’s competition, which began on 11 August 2012. After 6 preliminary rounds, the 2012-13 FA Cup First Round Proper will begin on the weekend of 2-4 November 2012. 32 Non-league clubs which have survived the preliminary rounds (clubs from Levels 5 through 8) will continue on in the competition and are now joined by the 48 clubs in the Football League One (Level 3 / 24 clubs) and the Football League Two (Level 4 / 24 clubs). That makes for 80 clubs in the 1st Round. [Clubs from the Premier League (Level 1 / 20 clubs) and the Football League Championship (Level 2 / 24 clubs) enter the competition in the Third Round, which usually begins on the first weekend of the new year in January.].


Live televised matches, see this, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012%E2%80%9313_FA_Cup#Media_coverage.
Below: home grounds of the televised matches…
Friday’s televised match (on ESPN-UK & Fox Soccer Channel), Cambridge City v. MK Dons, at the City Ground in Cambridge, home of Cambridge City.
cambridge-city_city-ground_f.gif
Photo credit above – cambridge2000.com

Saturday’s televised match (on Fox Soccer Channel), Hereford United v. Shrewsbury Town, at Edgar Street in Hereford, Herefordshire, home of Hereford United.
hereford-united_edgar-street_.gif
Photo credit above – unattributed at thewashbag.com.


Sunday’s early televised match (on ITV), Braintree Town v. Tranmere Rovers, at Cressing Road in Braintree, Essex.
braintree-town_cressing-road_b.gif
Photo credits above – NorthEssexOnTour.

Sunday’s late televised match (on ESPN-UK & Fox Soccer Channel), Dorchester Town v. Plymouth Argyle, at the Avenue Stadium, in Dorchester, Dorset, home of Dorchester Town.
dorchester-town_the-avenue-stadium_d.gif
Photo credit above – tigerroar.co.uk.

    The 2 smallest clubs in the 2012-13 FA Cup (as measured by home league average attendance -
    Metropolitan Police FC (of Surrey), and Yate Town FC (of Gloucestershire).

The two smallest clubs in the 2012-13 FA Cup First Round are Metropolitan Police FC (of Surrey), who currently average 137 per game, and Yate Town FC (of Gloucestershire) who currently average 138 per game. [Attendances are listed at the far left of the map page, and are current average attendances from home league matches to 28 Oct. 2012).]. Met Police FC are a 7th Level club in the Isthmian League Premier Division (aka the Ryman Prem) – they currently are in 13th place. Yate Town are an 8th Level club in the Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South & West. Along with Slough Town FC (of Buckinghamshire), Yate Town are the lowest-ranked team in the FA Cup this season by league-level. But while Slough Town sit in 10th place in the Evo-Stik Southern League Central Division, Yate Town are in dead last, in 22nd place, in their league.

Metropolitan Police FC are the football club that represents the London Metropolitan Police force, and are located just outside the actual boundaries of Greater London. They play at Imber Court, a London police force facility in East Molesey, Surrey, which is just across the River Thames from the SW border of Greater London (see London inset map on the map page). From the Wikipedia page on the club…
{excerpt}…
‘The club’s home at Imber Court is a general-use police sports facility which the Force acquired in 1919. Significant ground improvements, including a new stand, have taken place since the 1980s, funded by a Force lottery scheme.’…{end of excerpt).

Metropolitan Police FC lets in ringers these days, but still many of the players who represent Met Police FC are part of the police force and put on the uniform and badge. The club was forced to begin allowing in non-police in 2004, when they could not find a goalkeeper and had to look outside the Metropolitan police force to fill the squad. So now the Met Police FC set-up serves a bit as a recruitment tool, because some of those young Non-league players who have played for Met Police in recent seasons have decided to take up a career in law enforcement. Last season, around 3 to 4 Met Police players in the starting squad were employed by Metropolitan Police, although the reserve squad is almost completely full of Met Police employees. The manager of Met Police FC, Detective Jim Cooper, works in the crime squad monitoring dangerous sex offenders.

Most of the spectators Met Police get for their home matches are away fans, or neutral fans, who don’t mind going because the facilities are quite good for the seventh division. They probably have good coffee, tea, and doughnuts and bacon butties there. But I don’t think many folks are actually rooting for the squad (root for the cops? you must be joking). There is a story of how when the club hosted AFC Wimbledon a few years ago, Wimbledon brought over 2,000 of their supporters (they’re located just a couple kilometers east) – there were 3,000 there at Imber Court that day, and when the home team (Met Police) scored the first goal of the match, it went dead silent. A few months ago, in their June 2012 issue, ForFourTwo magazine had a short article about Met Police FC [sorry I can't link to it because ForFourTwo does not archive most of their material online]. In the article the reporter attempted to find any actual Met Police FC supporters who had season tickets and no connection (ie, friends and family) to Met Police FC players. There were exactly two (2) actual season-ticket-holders of Met Police FC – a retired couple from Dorking, Surrey. Here is Joyce, one half of the Met Police FC season-ticket-holder fan-base (see this photo by Stuart Tree at flicker.com).

Metropolitan Police FC, Imber Court, Surrey.
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Photo credits above-
Photo by Ray Stanton via arsenal.com.
putajumperon.wordpress.com.

Here is what Joyce had to say about her and her husband Jim deciding to become (the only) Met Police FC supporters…
{excerpt from FourFourTwo article from June 2012 written by Nick Moore}…”We used to go to Kingstonian, but they were too money-oriented, so we came here 10 years ago and thought it was great. We have no police connections – I just like ‘em. We go home and away, and I even have a player scrapbook. Three seasons ago we said, ‘We’ve been coming down here seven years – you’ve got to give us season tickets’. They had to make them specially.”…{end of excerpt}.

Here is an article about attending a Metropolitan Police FC match, ‘Metropolitan Police FC‘ (theballissquare.co.uk).

Yate Town are located in Yate in southern Gloucestershire – on the eastern edge of Greater Bristol, 19 km, (or 12 miles) east of Bristol. Yate has a population of around 21,000 {2001 census figure} Yate Rovers were formed in 1906, and changed their name to Yate YMCA in 1946. In 1969, the club changed their name to Yate Town. The play at Lodge Road, which has a 2,000-capacity (236 seated, with roof covering for 400). From Pyramid Passion.co.uk, ‘Yate Town FC‘ (pyramidpassion.co.uk). Yate Town are nicknamed the Bluebells, and wear white jerseys with dark blue pants. The club has been in the Southern League set-up since 1989-90, although they were relegated back to the 9th Level in 1999-2000, returning back 3 years later to the second-tier of the Southern League [8th Level] in 2003-04. As mentioned, the club sits in the relegation-zone currently, so it is hoped the squad can use this Cup run as the impetus to some good league form.

In Newport, Wales on Tuesday 23 October 2012, in an FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round replay, Yate Town defeated 5th Level club Newport County 3-1 to qualify for the FA Cup First Round for the first time in the club’s history. It was a pretty big upset seeing as Yate Town are 3 leagues below and 89 league places below Newport County in the football ladder – Newport County currently are in 1st place in the Conference National. The historic goals came from Tom Knighton, Scott Thomas, and Matt Groves. Admittedly, the equalizing goal for Yate Town – Knighton’s goal in the 73rd minute – came from a soft penalty, but Yate Town held their own for the rest of the 90 minues and then both Thomas and Groves scored in extra time to seal it. Match report at newport-county.co.uk, here. Here are video highlights of the match from itv.com, ‘Highlights of Yate Town’s win against Newport County‘ [scroll one-third down the page there for this video]

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Photo credits above – newport-county.co.uk.
itv.com/news/west/sport.
agroundhoppersdiary.blogspot.com/2011/12/yate-town-lodge-road
yate-town.blogspot.com.
tigerroar.co.uk/yatetown.

Yate Town currently average 138 per game (home league matches), and there were 132 away fans at that FA Cup replay in Newport, South Wales. Yes, I know it is not all that far from Bristol to Newport (about 192 km. or 109 miles), but on that Tuesday evening, 95 percent of the current fan base of Yate Town (as measured by average home attendance) traveled to Wales to support their club.

The FA Cup draw has been kind to Yate Town, because they will now play fellow-Gloucestershire–based Cheltenham Town at Whaddon Road in the FA Cup First Round on 3 November 2012. I am sure there will be more than 132 travelling fans representing Yate Town there on Saturday.

Here is an article about attending a Yate Town match, ‘Yate Town (Lodge Road)‘ (agroundhoppersdiary.blogspot.com).
___

Thanks to Altrincham FC official site for the photo of the Altrincham 2012-13 home jersey badge.
Thanks to soccerway.com for attendance figures (for Football League clubs, and Conference clubs).
Thanks to nonleague.co.uk for attendance figures (for 7th-level clubs [Northern, Isthmian, and Southern Premier Leagues]).
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2012–13 FA Cup‘.
Thanks to bbc.co.uk/football for the Fixture list image on the map page.
Thanks to Gloucester City fansite Tiger Roar for aerial photos of the grounds of Dorchester Town and Yate Town, http://www.tigerroar.co.uk.
Thanks to Nick Moore at FourFourTwo, http://fourfourtwo.com.

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