Journey to Wembley begins - FA Cup - Maltby Main FC

This fantasy trip on the ‘Road to Wembley’ I indulge in every season got under way at the weekend and it will end in May. What a competition! The simple premise. I pick a team, follow them until they lose and then follow the winners all the way to Wembley. It is the nerdy football fan in me my thing without leaving the comfit of my armchair.

So after picking a team I knew nothing about, where they play but knew they played somewhere in England I plucked out Maltby Main FC. Why I have no idea but why not I had to start somewhere. So Maltby Main play in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division a former pit team just outside Rotherham where back in the days when coal was king a good footballer was often guaranteed employment at the colliery.

Their visitors at the weekend were the football giants of Squires Gate FC from Blackpool who play in the North West Counties League Premier Division. It was the visitors who progressed into the next round where they will play West Didsbury or AFC Liverpool, who replay on Wednesday another away visit for my new team Squires Gate.

I have been doing this for years much easier with the onset of the World Wide Web but this is rare that in the early stages you find a match report. Well thanks to the local Blackpool paper The Gazette we have one.