2015-16 FA Cup, First Round Proper: location-map with current average attendance
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Links…
-Competition…FA Cup (en.wikipedia.org).
-First Round: fixtures/teams…FA Cup/First Round Proper (en.wikipedia.org).
-FA Cup at soccerway…FA Cup [Summary] (soccerway.com/national/england/fa-cup).
-BBC’s page on the FA Cup…FA Cup (bbc.com/sport/football/fa-cup).
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By Bill Turianski on 29 October 2015; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.com.
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2015-16 FA Cup 1st Round Proper, featuring the 4 clubs in the FA Cup 1st Round for the first time ever
(Barwell, Didcot Town, Salford City, Whitehawk)…
Barwell F.C.
The yellow-and-green-clad Barwell FC, nicknamed the Kirkby Roaders (after their 2.5-K-capacity ground), are located in south-western Leicestershire, in Barwell, which is about 2 km NE of Hinckley, and about 19 km or 12 miles SW of Leicester (by road). Barwell FC are a 7th Level side in the Northern Premier League, and currently sit 15th. This is a rather new club, being formed in 1992, from a merger between Hinckley FC and Barwell Athletic, both of whom had been in the 11th Level Leicestershire Senior League, and both of whom had never reached the FA Cup 1st Round. For 7 November 2015, in the 2015-16 FA Cup 1st Round, Barwell have drawn a home tie versus 5th-division side Welling United (of SE London).
Photo and Image credits above – Barwell 15/16 kits, illustration from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barwell_F.C. Panoramic photo of Kirkby Road ground by Tim at tims92.blogspot.com/panoramic-pictures. Photo of main stand unattributed at fortheloveoffootballblog.com.
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Didcot Town F.C.
Didot Town FC, who wear red-and-white, are nicknamed the Railwaymen, and are from Didcot, which is located 16 km or 10 miles S of Oxford (by road) in Oxfordshire. Didcot Town are the lowest-placed and smallest-drawing club to qualify for the 2015-16 FA Cup 1st Round. Didcot are currently averaging 130 per game. {Source: nonleaguematters.co.uk/divisions [Southern Div 1 S & W].} Didcot are an 8th Level club in the Southern League Division One South and West, and currently sit 16th. Didcot have drawn a home tie in the First Round, on the Sunday (8th Nov. 2015), and will face League Two (4th Division) side Exeter City. The match will be televised. {See this from the Didcot Town site, Didcot v Exeter chosen for Live TV Game (didcottownfc.co.uk).}
Photo and Image credits above – Didcot town 15/16 kits, illustration from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didcot_Town_F.C. Main stand at Didcot’s ground, photo by David Bauckham at pyramidpassion.co.uk/didcot_town. Photo with cooling towers and training facility in background, photo by Hants at exeweb.com/2012/10/10/fa-cup-101213-didcot-town-v-maidenhead-united-match-report/. Photo of roofed terrace behind goal, in a downpour, photo by JJ Willow at flickr.com.
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Salford City F.C.
Located within the city of Salford in west-central Greater Manchester, Salford City FC play in Kersal, Broughton, Salford about 4 km NW of Manchester city centre, and only about 3 km N of Old Trafford [home of Manchester Utd]). As it says in the Kersal page at en.wikipedia.org, “[Kersal's] immediate proximity to Manchester effectively makes it a suburb of that city, although it is politically and administratively separate.” Like Barwell (see two sections above), Salford City are also a 7th Level side in the Northern Premier League; Salford currently sit in the play-off places in 4th. Salford City wear red-and-white (but wore orange before 2014-15/see 3 sentences below for why they changed to MUFC-type kit). Salford City play at the 1.4-K-capacity Moor Lane in the Kersal area of Broughton, and are nicknamed the Ammies (a reference to the club’s 1963-to-1989 official name of Salford Amateurs FC). Salford City were a 9th Level club just 8 seasons ago, and have gained 2 promotions since then – first being when they won automatic promotion as 2nd-place-finishers in the 9th-level 2007-08 North West Counties Football League Division 1. Then in March 2014, in a 10%-share/each consortium with a majority investor [50%-owner, the Singapore businessman Peter Lim], a bunch of famous ex-players, who all made their names just down the road at Old Trafford, bought the club. Those 5 being Manchester United alumni Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, and Nicky Butt (aka the Class of ’92). {See this, Why the f*** did we buy a football club?’: Scholes, the Nevilles, Giggs and Butt reveal the highs and lows of the Salford City takeover in new BBC documentary, article by Mike Keegan at dailymail.co.uk/sport/football).} Then Salford City, in their first season under the new Red-Devil-alumni-owners, won the 2014-15 Northern Premier League Division One North, winning promotion to the 7th Level Northern Premier League. (Ryan Giggs has said the club has a 15-year goal of reaching for the upper reaches of the Football League.) For their FA Cup First Round debut, Salford City have drawn a home tie, versus 4th-division side Notts County, and it will be the first match in the 1st Round, on Friday evening the 6th of November, and of course it will be televised.
Photo and Image credits above – Salford City 15/16 kits, illustration from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salford_City_F.C. Photo of main stand by pitch-side-stories.com/salford-city. Photo of Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, and Nicky Butt at Salford City’s Moor Lane ground [March 2014], photo by salfordstar.com. Main stand at Salford’s Moor Lane, photo unattributed at thesportbusiness.co.uk.
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Whitehawk F.C.
From Greater Brighton, in East Sussex, Whitehawk are located a couple kilometres east of the Brighton city centre. Whitehawk FC are nicknamed the Hawks. The club was established in 1945, as Whitehawk & Manor Farm Old Boys FC. Whitehawk wear red and white, but the shield on their crest is a darker brick-red. They play at the spartan yet sylvan Enclosed Ground, which has a capacity of 2,000, with a main covered stand which seats about 120. Whitehawk are in their second season in the 6th level, in the National League South (National League South [2015-16]). Whitehawk have a modestly small fan-base, and draw second-least in their league, at just 246 per game currently. But…Whitehawk are sitting fourth and are in the play-off places, so, were they to gain promotion, Whitehawk would (almost cetainly) be the smallest club in the top Non-League division [the 5th division]). Whitehawk have drawn a home tie for the FA Cup 1st Round, on the Saturday (7th Nov 2015), and it will be versus 5th-division side Lincoln City. I think this could be a winnable fixture for Whitehawk, especially if enough folks in Sussex decide to attend the match.
Photo and Image credits above – Whitehawk 15/16 kits, illustration from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehawk_F.C. Aerial photo of the Enclosed Ground, unattributed at manygameshaveiseen.blogspot.com/2013/07/whitehawk-0-v-3-brighton-hove-albion. Photo of fans at the Enclosed Ground, watching a match in the rain, photo by StephenHarris at panoramio.com/photo/32272002.
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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 map of Greater Manchester, by Nilfanion (using Ordnance Survey data), at File:Greater Manchester UK relief location map.jpg.
-Current average attendance figures from Soccerway.com.
-Current average attendance for lower Non-League clubs (7th and 8th Levels), at non-league-matters.co.uk.
-And a big thanks to this brilliant blog which I never knew about…FA Cup Factfile, https://facupfactfile.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/fa-cup-201516-1st-round-preview/. I got the info on all the clubs-in-the-Cup-for-the-first-time from this blog.