2018-19 FA Cup 4th Round Proper- map with current league attendances & fixture list
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By Bill Turianski on 23 January 2019; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-The competition…FA Cup .
-2018-19 FA Cup 4th Round (us.soccerway.com).
-BBC.com/fa-cup.
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Update…
FA Cup 4 R Saturday 26 Jan 2019 – Upsets
Wins:
AFC Wimbledon 4-2 West Ham Utd (Wimbledon: 58 places lower)
Millwall 3-2 Everton (Millwall: 28 places lower)
Draws:
Middlesbrough 1-1 Newport County (Newport: 56 places lower)
Shrewsbury Town 2-2 Wolves (Shrewsbury: 54 places lower)
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Chart: Clubs in the 4th Round, by Division (with current league crowd-sizes shown)…
Attendance figures from soccerway.com.
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Biggest upset in 2018-19 FA Cup 3rd Round – Sheffield Utd 0-1 Barnet
Barnet (of the 5th division/National League) were 84 league-places and 3 divisions lower than 2nd-division side Sheffield United…
Barnet FC. Est. 1888. Nick-name: the Bees. Ground: The Hive. Capacity 6,500 (5,419 seated). Canons Park, northwest London Borough of Harrow. Colours: Orange and Black. Located, by road, about 6 miles (10 km) south-west of the club’s former location in Barnet.
Barnet have played 21 seasons in the Football League.
Barnet were in the Southern League when they became a founding member of the 5th division in 1979 {Alliance Premier League 1979-80}. In 1990-91, under longtime manager Barry Fry, Barnet won promotion to the 4th Division of the Football League. This was in the 5th year that an automatic promotion-spot, into the Football League, was allocated to the 5th division. Barnet won the Conference by 2 points over Colchester United in 1991. And then, 2 years later, in their second season in the Football League, Barnet won promotion again, to the 3rd division (in 1992-93). Barnet went back down to the 4th tier the next season (’93-94).
Barnet ended up staying 10 seasons in the Football League (1991-2001), with relegation to non-League [the Conference] in 2001. Their peak attendance was in their debut season in the League in 1991-92, at 3.6 K per game. It took Barnet 5 years to get back to the League, which they did in 2004-05, winning the 5th division with ease, 12 points ahead of Hereford United. At this point (2005-06), Barnet were drawing 2.2 K per game. Barnet’s second spell in the Football League lasted 8 seasons, all in the lower-half of the 4th division table. So you could say that it was becoming an ingrained fact that it was an uphill battle for Barnet to maintain League status. Relegation back to non-League came in 2013. It just so happened that this came about exactly as Barnet were about to leave their home of over 100 years, Underhill Stadium (1907-2013).
2013: Barnet are relegated out of the League again, and re-locate from Barnet to Harrow…
Underhill Stadium was famous for its sloped pitch. It was also the home of the Arsenal reserves. After the club’s 100-year lease expired, an ongoing dispute with Barnet Council forced the club to eventually sell the ground, and look elsewhere for a new home {see images and captions further below}. The club had to re-locate to find a suitable set-up. Barnet’s new venue, the Hive, is in the adjacent borough of Harrow, about 6 miles away (by road). They have plenty of room there for training fields, which they are able to rent out. (Note: the Hive is on the London Metro’s Jubilee Line, at the Canons Park station, which happens to be 3 stops north of Wembley Stadium, the site of the FA Cup Final {see map and aerial photo below}.)
Barnet’s 2013 relegation-/and-re-location did not drastically reduce crowd-size that much in 2013-14, given that a drop-off in crowds is to be expected when a club loses League status. {See Barnet attendance chart in the illustration below.} Barnet ended up dropping about 700 per game (down from 2.4 K in League Two, to 1.7 K in the Conference). It only took Barnet two seasons, this time, to re-gain promotion to the League, which was done in 2014-15, with Barnet beating out Bristol Rovers by one point for the Conference title. Barnet then ended up with a 3-season stint in the Football League, once again finishing in the lower half of League Two the whole way.
On the 5th of May 2018, for the third time in their history, Barnet were relegated out of the League, on goal difference (Morecambe survived). Barnet have become somewhat of a League/non-League yo-yo club, with two relegations out of the League since 2013. But 5 years later, relegation, this time, has hit Barnet harder…attendance has dropped around one-thousand-per-game (down from 2.2 K in League Two, to 1.2 K, currently, in the National League). In August 2018, Barnet started their fourth stint in non-League, and went winless in their first 5 games. They have recovered, and sit in 16th place with 4 games in hand (at the close of January 2018). But survival, and not a promotion push, is the best that can be salvaged. In other words, Barnet will be stuck in non-League next season. And Barnet just lost their manager, John Still [age 68], who retired a few days after Christmas in 2018. The 44-year-old Darren Currie, who was Still’s assistant coach, has taken over as caretaker manager.
Yet while their National League campaign was sputtering, Barnet were putting together a decent Cup run…
On 3 November, in front of 1.7 K at the Hive, Barnet held on to a 1-1 score versus 3rd-vision side Bristol Rovers. Then in the replay, they beat Rovers 1-2 at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, Bristol, on Wednesday 21st November 2018. Goals were scored by MF Craig Robson in the 75th minute, and by substitute FW Byron Harrison two minutes later, on an assist by MF Dan Sparkes (77′).
Then a late-November 2nd Round draw, with 6th-tier-side Stockport County, saw Barnet win 1-0 at the Hive, in front of 2.8 K (with Stockport bringing down over one thousand traveling supporters). Barnet’s winning goal was scored in the 8th minute, by MF Dan Sparkes, on a header from a cross by DF Cheye Alexander.
Then in the FA Cup 3rd Round, Barnet were drawn, away, to 2nd-division-side Sheffield United…
Sheffield United, sitting 3rd in the Championship, and in a quest to return to the Premier League, might not have placed that high a priority on the FA Cup right then. But, regardless, the Blades went into the match 84 league-places and 3 divisions higher than Barnet. The Blades’ fanbase might not have prioritized the match either, as there were just 9.9 K in attendance there at Brammall Lane. That figure included 966 traveling Barnet fans, who made the 160-mile journey up north, to South Yorkshire. Barnet scored the winner in the 21st minute on a penalty, scored by FW Shaq Coulthirst. To win the penalty, Coulthirst had threaded a pass to 19-year-old LW Ephron Mason-Clark, who was brought down in the box by a lunging Richard Stearman. Barnet held on for the win, greatly aided by a 89th-minute point-blank save that ‘keeper Mark Cousins made on a header by Blades’ FW Leon Cousins {see screenshots below}.
In the 4th Round draw, as just rewards for a brilliant 3rd Round Cup-upset, Barnet got a nice 4th Round tie, versus fellow London side Brentford.
Brentford, who are also nick-named the Bees, are in 17th place in the Championship. Brentford’s Griffin Park in West London is located only about 8 miles south of the Hive. The match will be played at the Hive, on Monday night, the 28th of January. The match was, of course, selected for television broadcast, and it is sold out.
Photo and Image credits above – Barnet 18/19 small kit illustrations, from en.wikipedia.org/Barnet. Barnet 18/19 jersey illustration from historicalkits.co.uk/Barnet. Underhill Stadium, photo unattributed at dailymail.co.uk/football/article-Barnet-leave-Underhill-104-years. Aerial shot of the Hive from barnetfc.com. R Stearman penalty on E Mason-Jones, screenshot from video from streamable.com/4ms55 via reddit.com/soccer. Ephron Mason-Clark, photo by Gavin Ellis/TGS Photo via barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk. Penalty goal by Shaq Coalthirst, photo by Matt West via theguardian.com/football. Shaq Coalthirst, photo by James Williamson/AMA/Getty Images via hitc.com. GK Cousins’ save, and Mark Cousins after the save, screenshots from video uploaded by FA Emirates Cup at youtube.com. Traveling Barnet fans, photo by Mark Cosgrove/News Images/REX via dailymail.co.uk/football. Darren Currie & Barnet players thank the traveling fans, photo by Getty Images via dailymail.co.uk/football.
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Thanks to all at the links below…
-Blank map of UK historic counties, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:United Kingdom police areas map.svg (commons.wikimedia.org).
-Blank relief map of Greater London, by Nilfanion (using UK Ordnance Survey data), at File:Greater London UK relief location map.jpg.
-Blank relief map of Greater Manchester, by Nilfanion (using Ordnance Survey data), at File:Greater Manchester UK relief location map.jpg.
-Blank relief map of West Midlands, by Nilfanion, at File:West Midlands UK relief location map.jpg -Attendances from us.soccerway.com.
-2018-19 FA Cup (en.wikipedia.com).
