FA Cup in November – no thanks not for us

Dino Maamria - his goals saw off the Unrpofessionals

I had been brought up on the FA Cup starting in January and the 3^rd round and thanks to the efforts of Stan Ternent’s Mob during the 1999/2000 season it is one tradition we have had restored.

Hands up those who made a special effort to take in the 2^nd round draw on Sunday. I thought so, not many of you, no real interest. But I bet you’ll all be glued to your television sets in just under four weeks time for one of the highlights of the football calendar – the 3^rd round draw.

You’ll be sat there hoping and praying we don’t meet certain teams and hoping that we might just get a favourable draw. You’ll get more and more frustrated and anxious the longer you have to wait before ball number 7 is drawn out – our draw number this season.

But the FA Cup has been underway for some time as it makes its way down to a total of 20 clubs to join us big boys in the 3^rd round. For a while it is a whole host of qualifying rounds before it gets under way with the 1^st round proper – I assume that the qualifying rounds are not proper.

That throws up its own heroes and giant killers and one possibly the biggest over last weekend had Burnley connections – more of that shortly.

Many of us took to our televisions on Sunday to see locals Accrington Stanley take on Andrew Watson’s Huddersfield Town and even celebrate their victory. Not just on television either, a good number of Burnley supporters inside the Interlink Stadium were picked up by those cameras.

In the Stanley squad were two of our players from last season – Paul Cook and Gordon Armstrong. Cooky was in the starting line up and impressed whilst Stretch had to settle for a place on the bench. But did you know that they were just two of twenty players with league experience at Turf Moor to be involved in last weekend’s 1^st round?

One of those twenty in particular received a lot of attention and that was Phil Eastwood now with Stalybridge Celtic. They had gone two down at Barnet but David Miller’s team came back to earn a draw with Phil, now a police officer, getting the equaliser from the penalty spot.

He wasn’t the only one of the twenty to score either. Mark Yates scored in Cheltenham’s comprehensive win over Legend Peter Taylor’s Hull City (LPTHC) to give their new manager John Ward a good start whilst Micky Mellon was literally on the spot with a late penalty in Tranmere’s win over Chesterfield.

That Tranmere game featured two other former Clarets in David Reeves and Steve Blatherwick who were both used as subs by Chesterfield.

Some of those twenty players will find themselves playing in the 2^nd round whilst others won’t, their cup runs coming to an end long before ours has started but back to that hero and who wouldn’t be a hero after scoring two goals to beat the Unprofessionals.

It’s not long ago that Dino Maamria was a Community coach at Turf Moor as well as being the club’s Ethnic Minorities Officer which he combined with playing part time in the Conference with Leigh RMI.

But he took the chance to go full time at Stevenage and this was his day as a shot followed by a header gave his team a 2-0 lead against the 2^nd Division strugglers. They won it 2-1 and he found himself the local hero being interviewed on Sky Sports News.

Who knows, they take on Brian Flynn’s Swansea in the next round and he could yet be back at the Turf for the 3^rd round – that’s when the big boys come in.

Below are those former Burnley players who were involved in the FA Cup 1^st round