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By Bill Turianski on 1 January 2019; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-The competition…FA Cup .
-2018-19 FA Cup/3rd Round (en.wikipedia.org).
-BBC.com/fa-cup.
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Update (8th of January): Clubs in 4th Round draw (36 clubs/4 replays)
Chart: 2018-19 FA Cup 4th Round draw – Clubs in the draw, by division.
Current crowd-size [league matches] shown for each club.
Clubs in draw: 14 from Prem/ 12 from C’ ship/ 7 from L1/ 2 from L2/ 1 non-League (Barnet).
Attendance data: soccerway.com.
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Updates (5th & 6th of January):
2018-19 FA Cup 3rd Round, from Saturday 5 January 2019: chart of the biggest upsets & the best results for lower-placed team.
Biggest upset: Gillingham over Cardiff (Gillingham was 45 places and 2 divisions lower).
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Update:
2018-19 FA Cup 3rd Round, from Sunday 6 January 2019: chart of the biggest upsets & the best results for lower-placed team.
3 big upsets…
Barnet over Sheffield Utd (Barnet: 84 places/3 div lower);
Newport County over Leicester City (Newport: 74 places/3 div lower).
Oldham Athletic over Fulham (Oldham: 59 places/3 div lower).
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Below: the 64 clubs in the 3rd Round, listed by division…
- Woking FC (National League South/6th level): lowest-placed team in the 2018-19 FA Cup 3rd Round Proper…
Woking FC, established 1889, are nicknamed the Cards (as in the Cardinal red in their Red-and-White halved jerseys). Woking play at the Kingfield Stadium in Woking, Surrey (located, by road, 31 miles south-west of central London). The Kingfield is an unusual ground in that it has spartan lower-non-League type stands on three sides, and a steep, roofed modern stand behind one goal: the Leslie Gosden Stand (2,016 seats; opened December 1995). This came about when Woking had large ambitions 25 years, or so, ago. But then the money ran out, and it has been a matter of consolidation since the early 2000s.
Many parts of the London commuter belt contain clubs that never have been able to grow their fan-base very much, because of being overshadowed by all the nearby big London clubs. And the county of Surrey certainly falls into this category. Surrey is a home county that has no Football League presence. There has never been a Surrey-based club in the League. Woking have come close (finishing 2nd in the Conference National, in 1994–95 and ’95–96), but Woking have never been higher than the 5th division.
Woking were a mainstay in the 5th tier fifteen years ago (Woking played 17 straight seasons in the 5th division, from 1992-93 to 2008-09). But this is now their second spell in the 6th tier, after 3 seasons up in the 5th tier. So, in other words, Woking are becoming somewhat of a 6th-tier-/-5th-tier yo-yo club. Woking draw solid for a life-long non-League club (2.2 K last season), and still draw well above 1 K now that they are stuck back in the 6th tier. And Woking could bounce straight back to the National League…it is starting to look like the National League South could see a title-race between former League club Torquay United, and Woking. (As to the other NL-S promotion candidates: Billericay are fading now that the Tamplin-money is gone; Concord Rangers might be too small a club to mount a promotion-push; although Welling, Chelmsford, Bath, and Dartford could pose a threat.)
Woking have qualified for the FA Cup 3rd Round three times.
Woking’s first appearance in the FA Cup 3rd round, back in the 1990-91 season, was their greatest moment. At that point in their history, Woking had not yet been promoted to the 5th division, and were an Isthmian League side. Woking beat three 5th division sides to get to the 3rd round (Bath City in the 4th Q, Kidderminster in the 1st R, Merthyr Tydfil in the 2nd R). Then in the 3rd round, Woking beat Second Division side West Bromwich Albion, away, 2-4, to reach the 4th round. Woking beat a team four levels higher, playing away, and despite being 1-0 down at the half. The hero that day was Surbiton, Surrey-born and Gibralter cricket international Tim Bazaglo, who had a hat-trick {see image below}. (In the 4th round in 1991, Woking lost 1-0 to Everton.)
Video – FA Cup Upset – Woking (Non-League) 4-2 West Brom (1991) | From The Archive (1:35 video uploaded by The Emirates FA Cup at youtube.com).
Below: January 1991: Woking beat West Bromwich, a team 4 divisions higher (1990-91 FA Cup 3R at the Hawthorns in West Bromwich)…
Image above – screenshot from youtube.com. Old Woking badge from vintagefootballshirts.com. 1990-91 FA Cup wordmark from sportspages.com.
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Woking’s second appearance in the FA Cup 3rd round came six years later, in 1996-97. Woking qualified for the 3rd round in ’96-97 by beating two Football League clubs: the then-3rd-tier-side Millwall (away) in the 1st round, and 4th-tier-side Cambridge United (away), in the 2nd round. (In the 3rd round, Woking lost to Coventry City, in a replay, 1-2.)
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Now Woking will make their third appearance in the 3rd round.
Here are the 5 clubs Woking beat in mid-to-late-2018, to qualify:
2nd Qualifying round, Tooting & Mitcham Utd (8th tier)
3rd Qualifying round, Kempston Rovers (8th tier)
4th Qualifying round, Welling Utd (6th tier)
1st Round, (away at) Torquay Utd (6th tier)
2nd Round, (away at) Swindon Town (4th division). (Winning goal in the 54′, Jake Hyde (FW), headed in a cross from the left, by Josh Casey (LB; captain).
Video – Swindon Town 0 – 1 Woking | Match Highlights (12:00 video uploaded by Woking FC TV at youtube.com…Jake Hyde’s goal can be seen at ~5:30 in video).
In the draw for the 3rd round, Woking were handed a sweet home match, versus Premier League side Watford (on Sunday the 6th of January). Watford is located just north-west of Greater London, in south-west Hertfordshire, and is situated just 34 miles (by road) north of Woking. So that makes for a very good match for traveling Watford fans – and, as of 31st of December, the match has essentially been sold out (250 tickets remain). And the Woking v Watford tie has been selected for television coverage, so Woking will be earning a significant sum from the match.
Below: Woking beats Swindon Town, away, 0-1, to qualify for the FA Cup 3rd Round for the first time in 22 years…
Photo and Image credits above – Aerial image of Kingfield Stadium, from bing.com/maps. Old Woking coat of arms, from old.woking.gov.uk/woking/people/crest. Photo of Family Stand, Directors Stand & Moaners’ Corner, photo by groundhopping.se/Woking. Leslie Gosden Stand, photo by DL Chadwick via geograph.org.
Jake Hyde scores winner v Swindon, photo by David Holmes via wokingnewsandmail.co.uk/sport. Jake Hyde goal at Swindon: Woking players celebrating with traveling fans, screenshot from video uploaded by Woking FC TV at youtube.com. Woking manager Alan Dowson, arriving back at the supporters’ celebration, at the Kingfield Stadium, later that night: screenshot from video uploaded by Woking FC TV at youtube.com. Traveling Woking fans at Swindon, photo from twitter.com/WokingFCFans. Woking players and coaches celebrate after win, photo unattributed at thenonleaguefootballpaper.com.
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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 -List of Greater Manchester settlements by population.
-Attendances from us.soccerway.com.
