Thursday 12 September 2019

2nd Qualifying Round – Meet Gainsborough Trinity FC…


On Tuesday 10th September, Gainsborough Trinity FC joined the GKA through their 1-0 victory over Banbury United.

Gainsborough Trinity Football Club was formed in 1873 as the Trinity Recreationists.  The club was set up by the vicar of the Holy Trinity Church for young parishioners.

Their first ever game was against Newton Heath (who later became Manchester United). 

Trinity has a decent non-league record in the FA Cup as they have reached the First Round Proper over 35 times and made various appearances in the Second Round Proper.  In 1987 they reached the Third Round Proper for their first and only time.

The Club plays in the BetVictor Northern Premier League, which is in the 7th Tier of the football Pyramid. They are currently 17th with 4 points from 5 games.



Gainsborough is in Lincolnshire and Trinity will be traveling 98.1 miles south to face Rushall Olympic FC.




At Dales Lane – 3pm, Saturday 21st September. 





Rushall Olympic FC (the Pics) also play in the 7th tier of the pyramid, in the BetVictor Southern Premier Central – they are 2nd in their division with 13pts after 6 games.  They are the most in-form team for this contest against Trinity and they are playing at home.

The Pics should be favourites to win. 

However, Trinity did knock out BetVictor Southern Premier Central League leaders Banbury in the last round.

That’s the magic of the FA cup…

Blast from the past…

In 1976 Brian James’s journey followed his Preliminary Round winners Tividale to a 1st Qualifying Round game against Oldbury United. A 42.1-mile trip from their previous Hinkley Athletic victory.


In the game against Oldbury United, Tividale came out as 0-4 winners, and of course the fans turned up in excellent 1970s fashions.


223 people attended that game, compared to the 259 that watched Rushall Olympic beat Sheffield FC on 1st September 2019. These are comparable figures and it could be argued that the FA cup has not lost importance to clubs at non-league levels.


In the 1976/77 season there was only 12 rounds to get to the FA Cup final.  In modern day football, the men have 14 rounds and the women have 13 rounds.

According to Brian James, clubs at this level were aiming to reach the First Round Proper. To the Tividale payers it felt like reaching the First Round Proper was their Wembley. I wonder if modern teams feel the same?

The Tividale players in 1976 got a £1-win bonus (equivalent to £7.07 in 2019) and the team got £5 (£35.35 in 2019 money) bonus per goal. Did the Rushall and Trinity players also receive such huge rewards for their recent endeavours? 

I suspect that the Mossley Hill Ladies team didn’t get any bonus money for their GKA previous round victory over Curzon Ashton.

In 1976, Tividale drew a home tie… 


Against Telford United…Another local game as Telford only had to travel 26 miles. We’ll let you know how the 1976 game went when we report on the 2nd Qualifying Round tie in 2019. 



Don’t forget our double header next weekend as: -


On Saturday 21st it’s Rushall Olympic V Gainsborough Trinity FC (Men’s 2nd Qualifying Rd)

On Sunday 22nd it’s Sunderland West End V Mossley Hill (Women’s 1st Qualifying Rd)






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