We faced Taunton Town earlier in the season with Charlie Davis, who will miss this match through injury, scoring the only goal of the game.

Non-league teams can benefit a greatly from a successful cup run, the winners of this tie will receive £3,375 with the losers picking up £1,125.  The Football Association has extended its long-term global partnership of the FA Cup with Emirates for a further four years – and the world’s most iconic domestic cup competition will continue to be called the Emirates FA Cup until 2028.

Each season, over 700 clubs and 10,000 players across ten levels of the English football pyramid compete in the historic competition, which culminates in the Final at Wembley Stadium. Across the 2023/24 season, over 96 million viewers tuned in to watch the Emirates FA Cup, with over eight million watching the Final between Manchester City and Manchester United. The global appeal of the competition also continues to go from strength to strength, with matches broadcast in over 200 countries worldwide.

Taunton progressed to the second qualifying round by beating Didcot Town 3-0 at home on August 31^st. The Peacocks have been prolific scorers at Wordsworth Drive, finding the net no less than ten times in four league and cup matches. Regrettably for them those goals have not been turned into wins as they have recorded just the one league win, away at Frome Town 2-0 so far this season.

This puts them in 15^th place in the table (P7 W1 D4 L2 7 points) which will be a disappointment as I am sure they would have hoped to get the season off to a more positive start.

Evander Grubb, 16, a former Bristol Rovers prospect became the youngest scorer in the history of the FA Cup (16 years and 54 days) when he netted a brace for Bristol Manor Farm in their 5-1 win at Cadbury Heath in the preliminary round in 2022. Grubb came through the Bristol Rovers academy system and joined Bristol Manor Farm on his release.

On his achievement he commented at the time “It’s the best thing I’ve done in football, scoring in the FA Cup. It was a good feeling.”

The Peacocks are managed by the very experienced Richard Luffman who previously led Southern League Division One South side, Cribbs F.C, to incredible achievements. During his tenure at Cribbs F.C, Richard steered the team to unprecedented heights, securing their highest-ever position in the football pyramid. His remarkable managerial skills translated into an impressive record of 76 victories out of 114 league games managed. Richard’s spell at Cribbs F.C was marked by extraordinary accomplishments, including clinching the uhlsport Hellenic League Cup in the 2021/2022 season and capturing the Hellenic League title in 2022/2023.

From our own point of view, we go into the match on the back of the very disappointing 5-0 defeat at Swindon Supermarine last weekend. No doubt everyone will be eager to put this behind us and show that it was very much a one-off. We sit in 8^th place in the table (P6 W3 D1 L2 10 points) so not yet the time to get too despondent.

Should a replay be necessary it will be at Wordsworth Drive o Tuesday 17^th September.

Enjoy the game

Neil Wellington.