The FA Cup: A Reminder That a Gulf Still Remains Off the Pitch

There are some things that never change around the festival period. Turkey Sandwiches on Boxing Day, visiting in-laws that seemingly only exist during Christmas and the consumption of plenty of alcohol.

Add to that list FA Cup Third Round shocks, a sporting weekend etched in the memory for everyone that has succeeded, and even more so for those who have been thwarted.

This weekend brought similar fortunes for some lower league clubs, with the likes of Nottingham Forest, Hartlepool United, and Torquay United heading the list. We also saw Southend United come away from Stamford Bridge with a 1-1 draw.

The number of Premiership opposition overturned over the last few years has greatly increased and we saw four top flight sides go out on Saturday.

We’re also assured another casualty with Hull City and Newcastle United due to meet in a replay with four others still awaiting there fate.

This doesn’t compare with last year however as we lost eight Premiership sides in the Third Round, a big factor in the unusual line-up in the Final last year.

The pattern shows that in previous years the gap is closing up towards the Premiership, with more sides than ever being defeated by sides in leagues below.

In terms of league form the gap does seem to be closing as well.

An example can be taken by the progress of Hereford United as they went from the Blue Square Premier to League One in three seasons.

We have heard countless stories of sides climbing the leagues in a short period of time with the likes of Hull City, Wigan Athletic, and Fulham all reaching the Premiership after residing in the lower leagues.

To add to this encouraging list, we have had a record eight non-league sides in this year's FA Cup Third round, a massive breakthrough for non-league football.

It gives further evidence that even non-league football is catching up with its football league counterparts.

When speaking to Kidderminster Harriers Chairman Barry Norgrove, ahead of the clubs tie at Coventry City he suggested that something should be done to fill the gap between the Conference and the football league.

“There should be a league three because there’s so many quality sides in this division (Blue Square Premier) they don’t deserve to be non-league.”

Now it’s debatable whether this would change much in the football pyramid, and an idea like this would be a huge development to the already able functioning Football League.

However, as leagues seem to be grouping closer together with the teams ability on the pitch, off the pitch the gap seems to be growing in the opposite direction.

With money issues hitting lower league clubs especially hard, times are becoming increasingly difficult.

This weekend has brought up two issues that highlight the simple differences between football league and non-league clubs.

We’ll start at Histon as they hosted Swansea City in the third round in the biggest game in the clubs history, along with the huge incentive of yet another giant killing.

The game however, three and a half hours before kick off was abandoned due to a frozen pitch.

The day as whole was ruined for Histon, while Swansea live to fight another day, after avoiding a tie they would surely have been dreading.

Now Histon’s pitch as we all should know from watching the Stutes victory over Leeds United in the previous round, is pretty awful, and from what I hear that’s no one off.

But with a huge cup-tie ahead of them you would hope the club would pull out all the stops to get the game on. Think again.

Now I know frozen pitches were reported at a lot of games this weekend, but down the road at Kettering (the nearest match going on that same day) they had no problems.

Now I don’t want to comment about localised weather conditions and whatnot but surely some professionalism has to come into this.

I know money is a factor in most respects, but Kettering, a team from the same league would have had similar if not exactly the same resources to get the game on.

I do know Kettering had covers for the pitch to help prevent some of the expected frost, Histon made so such prevention however.

For supposidly the biggest match in the clubs history, could they not have made the same prevention?

The referee also came down the day before inspected the pitch himself at Kettering, and had the fixture been irretrievable he would have saved the club plenty of time a sacrifice Histon’s referee didn’t make.

Histon even refused to give the pitch an inspection the day before the game after Swansea had requested due to the inclement weather due over-night and what had previously been throughout the week.

The welsh club had kept tabs on the weather and were pretty convinced that if no reservations had been made before the game, then the match would not go ahead.

This apparent ‘persuasion’ towards the referee before the game was pure knowledge that the pitch would not be in a fair state, not attempting to get the game called off. They were already at the game after all.

It sounds to me like a total mess.

The second point I want to make it the unfortunate incident that surrounds Droylsden.

As we all know at the fourth time of asking Droylsen overcame Chesterfield with a 2-1 with a brace from Shaun Newton, but it’s the goal-scorers involvement that came into question.

Chesterfield discovered that the player was suspended for the tie and appealed for an intervention from the Football Association, which resulted in Chesterfield’s reinstatement.

Now issues like this have cropped up before, when Bury fielded Stephen Turnbull without permission from Hartlepool United where he was loaned from at the time.

They, like Droyslden were thrown out of the competition but their situation was slightly different as Bury tried to dodge the rules thinking the player was eligible; Droylsden’s was down to simple incompetence.

A club in the upper regions of the football pyramid, a team like Chesterfield for example would have the administration in place for this to be prevented

For a club like Droyslden to miss out on a huge Third Round payday is unforgivable, and whoever mistake it was, whether it is manager, player or part of the backroom staff should take full responsibility for putting the clubs long-term future in jeopardy.

But this is simply the difference between these clubs. When it comes down to the playing football, let’s not forget the reason behind this prestigious competition; teams are on, for one day at least a level playing field.

But when it comes to behind the scenes, its where the clubs start to drift apart, and incidents like the two I’ve mentioned just don’t happen to clubs higher up the pyramid.

Why is this? Well money is an issue I will admit.

But it’s an easy excuse to make. I firmly believe a club must prove itself behind the scenes before it can on the pitch, especially if you want to compete in such competitions as the FA Cup.

We get a lot of clubs being forced into administration, and what is the one theme with all these clubs? They aren’t run correctly or within the rules, as the point various and regular point deductions prove.

We’ve all read about the decline of Leeds United and how shoddily things were run down at Elland Road, well it’s no coincidence that things are like they are now.

Not until clubs all the way down the leagues are run properly and professionally can the gulf finally be closed, between the countries elite and our lower league clubs.