Easy Peasy (kind of)

With the away FA Cup tie at Hartlepool almost upon us, I thought I'd look at our record over the last 20 or so years when playing away to League teams. Initially, I got unnecessarily excited when I made a list of the "Giants" we had sent tumbling out of the Cup on their own patches. At first I thought our record read, Played 7, Won 4, Drawn 1 and Lost 2. Brilliant! We've got to fancy our chances with this record! Better pop straight round to Ladbrokes.


However, after sharing my findings it was pointed out that I'd somehow omitted the defeats at Gillingham and Blackburn. Bugger!

The now complete and accurate list of our FA Cup away-days against League Clubs in recent memory (until I remember another one) is as follows: -


Halifax Town. Won 3-2. Great night, great trip (except for the coach catching fire) Robbie Cooke and Russell Lewis shot us to heaven (well, more exactly, Charlton).

Charlton Athletic. Lost 2-1. The largest Poppies migration which didn't involve twin towers descended on South London. Cooke scored the goal which put us within touching distance or glory.

Maidstone United. Won 2-1. Revenge in some small measure for them beating us to promotion to the league a couple of years earlier. Not sure if we'd got better in the meantime, but they sure as hell were worse! Phil Brown and Darren Oxbrow scored for us. However, only one of them was a Kettering player at that time!

Blackburn Rovers. Lost 4-1. Rovers were about to go on a Millionaire-backed ride that would result in a Premier League title. They took a short break from their inexorable rise to give us a bit of a spank. Brownie scored our goal, which looks better every time you see it, and it looked pretty good at the time.

Gillingham. Lost 3-2. Most annoying of Cup defeats at League grounds because we deserved so much more. Brownie again, and Swamp-Monster Richard Hill did the business for us, but a referee who couldn't spot a foul on a goalie from all of three feet away consigned us to defeat. We were in the midst of one of our periodic downturns, and Graham Carr was picking up players from everywhere to fulfill fixtures. This defeat still rankles.

Ah ha!! Bet you thought I'd forgotten Wrexham. Drew 1-1. Cannot recall for the life of me who scored. Hopefully someone will be able to dredge that one up!

Hull City. Won 1-0. In their pre-Premier League whipping-boy period, Hull were a struggling basement team waiting to be turned over by a sub-standard Poppies team. Matt Fisher's thumping effort turned out to be Peter Morris's last hurrah.

Bristol City. Lost 3-1. Darren Collins gave us a surprising half time lead at Ashton Gate, but eventually we were swept away. Probably the only game where he sweated for us, and didn't spend all his time moaning at Dale Watkins.



Lincoln City. Won 2-1. Almost up to date now. Craig Westcarr scored our first, and then recent pop-side scapegoat Lyseden Christie silenced his boo-boys for fully two minutes by heading our late winner. A sweet victory over their lying, whining, loudmouth manager, who's name now escapes me.


Notts County. Drew 1-1. This was a game against the 2008-9 Notts County vintage prior to Sven, flying visits from Sol Campbell, and shady foreign millionaires. Brett Solkhon put us 1-0 up, and of course, we won the replay after they drew level. We went on to go on and sell out Rockingham Road against the mighty Eastwood Town. Fully 4000 more people turned up for this game than would have been there had it been the third round of the Trophy rather than the Cup!