3rd Qualifying Round – Stourbridge FC V Curzon Ashton

I want to thank Lancaster City FC for their impending mention of our blog on their website and for their 4 retweets - this is our third website promise as Marine FC and Curzon Ashton have already mentioned our blog.  Neither the Manchester Evening News nor the Lancaster Guardian mentioned our blog when I was trying to promote the games.

Our facebook page is growing with 89 Likes.

https://www.facebook.com/thegiantkillingadventure

In update news I am still waiting for Bev’s unofficial professional photographs from the Extra Preliminary Round game between St Helens Town and Ashton Athletic from 17^th August 2013. 

Let’s get to business:-

It is the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup 2013/14, and no more teams have been entered.  We have teams that are at least 5 divisions lower than the Premiership big boys and the ties are still regional (North/South split).   Our winner Curzon Ashton from the 2nd Qualifying Round has drawn an away tie against Stourbridge FC.  80 teams will fight it out during this round and the higher levels are teams from the Conference North and Conference South.   

V

Stourbridge is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, near West Bromwich in the West Midlands – Stourbridge is less than 15 miles from Birmingham and this area is part of the industrial Black Country (famously named during the Industrial Revolution).  The town is known for its local glass production, which has been manufactured since the early 1600s – Stourbridge FC’s nickname is the Glassboys.  The town is also famous for the Stourbridge Lion Locomotive which was the first train to run in the USA in 1829.

Stourbridge Standard was formed in 1876 but changed their name to Stourbridge FC the following season.  In the 2009/10 season they reached the 1^st Round Proper of the FA Cup and were beaten by Walsall at home 0-1 (an impressive 2014 fans turned up for the game).  This was bettered in 2011/12 when they reached the 2^nd Round Proper of the FA Cup.   They lost to Stevenage at home in front of 3067 fans.  The score was 0-3 but these are two recent and notable Cup runs.

Bruce StourWolf Pearson kindly placed the following YouTube link onto the Giant Killing Adventure's facebook page:-

Stourbridge 2 - 0 Plymouth Argyle | The FA Cup 1st Round Replay 12/

https://www.facebook.com/thegiantkillingadventure

Stourbridge play in the Calor League - Premier Division and this is our blog’s first Southern Football League game - welcome.  Stourbridge are currently in 8th position with 18 points from 10 games.  

Curzon Ashton plays in the Evo-Stik First Division North and they are currently in 2nd place with 22 points from 8 games. They have two games in hand on the top team and Curzon are undefeated in the league this season - but they play in a League which is one tier lower than Stourbridge FC. I think this is going to be a close game and difficult to call - the FA Cup will figure it out on match day, 12^th October 2013.  

As you can see from the map, we are travelling 141 miles south from Giant Axe Stadium (where Curzon Ashton knocked out Lancaster City FC) to the War Memorial Athletic Ground (home to Stourbridge FC).  Our FA Cup journey has travelled 341 Miles in five rounds from its current home in Wigan to Stourbridge, via Ashton, Curzon, Crosby, Curzon and Lancaster.