The games on the 25th and 26th January 2020

The games on the 25^th and 26^th January 2020

Saturday 25^th January 2020 - 15:00, Burnley FC v Norwich City FC

Suddenly, the FA cup felt more alive.  Last night (Friday 24^th January) Northampton Town had played Derby County (0-0) on BT sport and QPR had played Sheffield Wednesday (1-2) to open the weekend’s fixtures.

At Saturday lunchtime, Brentford v Leicester City was live on BBC1 and BBC iPlayer was showing the women’s Manchester United V Manchester City tie.

It was FA cup, everywhere I look…

I set off at 2pm for my 40-minute drive to Turf Moor in Burnley. 

Burnley was a bit of a maze to drive around and once off the motorway I was taken by google maps (other Sat Nav systems are available) through the Town Centre, towards some side streets.  I didn’t know where to park and then I noticed a sign for Match day Parking. A guy in a high vis jacket nodded towards the car park and I thought ‘Okay,’ until I drove into a gravely bit of land and was charged £5 for the pleasure.

At least I knew where my car was, and it seemed relatively safe. Within 2 minutes I was next to the ground and I had walked past a dozen free parking spaces on the road.  

As I walked around the stadium, I noticed a distant lack of atmosphere – everything felt quiet and chilled. It didn’t really feel like a football game.

But these excellent blankets were a display of the local support…

And the stadium looked impressive from the outside.

Around the side of the stadium was a war memorial, dedicated to the supporters of Burnley Football Club that lost their lives during the 1^st World War – I thought this was a nice touch by the Football Club and further in the distance you can see a monument devoted to Brian Miller who had been a previous player, captain and manager of the club. 

Further displays of homage to ex-players were scattered around the stadium, such as this photo of Martin Dobson who played for Burnley twice, from 1967 to 1974, and 1978 to 1983 – he also had a stint as caretaker manager in 2010. 

I walked around the corner to find my stand, sponsored by James Hargreaves since it was built in 1996.

I entered through the turnstiles (£20 for the ticket), went up various flights of stairs and, via a £2 coffee, I took my seat – what an excellent view of both the pitch and the hills in the distance. 

Sunday 26^th January – Burnley Women FC V Leicester City women FC.

What a dreary weary day this was – it had rained heavily all morning and I kept checking Twitter to make sure that this game was still going ahead. There was no information to tell me otherwise, so at 12:10, I set of on my 29-minute drive to Padiham – a small town, three miles west of Burnley and home to the Women’s Football club. 

Despite the rubbish weather, I arrived in good time and parked on the road, next to a cricket pitch across from the stadium. 

I made my way around and passed the excellent looking Hare and Hounds pub.

Up the side street and past the Car Park Full sign.

Towards the turnstiles before paying my £3 entrance fee.

Stadium costs so far – Men v Women

Men £114

£11 Women

I passed the club house…

I took my GKA corner flag photo (notice the soggy run up to taking a corner) and I grabbed a seat in the opposite stand.

Saturday

The players came out and the game kicked off at 15:00. It was 7 degrees and dry weather. I noticed, suddenly, how compressed I felt.  There wasn’t much room to swing a dead cat, so it’s a good job I hadn’t brought one.

All the noise and atmosphere were coming from the goal to my right (the Cricket Field Stand), which was split 50/50 between Burnley and Norwich fans. The James Hargreaves stand was quiet apart from the odd shout (of encouragement and positivity of course).

Norwich should have scored within the first 30 seconds and could easily have had 3 goals within the first 15 minutes - this could be felt by the fan’s reactions.

Fan 1 - That's 3 or 4 times they've carved us apart.

This wasn’t helped, as around the 50^th minute Norwich went up 1-0 and a few minutes later it was 2 nil.

Fan 1 shouted - It's like watchin St Mary's under 16s.

Fan 2 kept repeatedly shouting – Stop the Cross and a further fan’s only contrition was to shout – ‘Come on’ every time Burnley had possession.  

He sounded stressed and this reminded me of an Oxford study stating that ‘Devoted football fans experience dangerous levels of stress’ during games. Apparently, stress hormones increase, and this produces an increase in blood pressure and a potential strain on the heart. According to Dr Martha Newson (University of Oxford), ‘football gets discounted as just a game, and it’s not.’

I could sense the stress in the fans after Burnley grabbed an excellent goal to make it 1-2.  However, Burnley ran out of steam and the game ended.  

There had been 1 booking.

Penalties and Cards – Men v Women

Penalties - Men 2	3 Women
Yellow Cards – Men 30	4 Women
Red Cards – 1	0 Women

The attendance was 8,071.

Attendances – Men V Women

Men 30,766

858 Women

Norwich won £180,000 in prize money.

Prize Money – Men V Women

Men £451,390

Women £13,085

Another great day of football fun before I returned to the busy maze of getting out of Burnley.

Route Men’s

Avro Fc 3	4 Litherland Remyca
Sheffield FC 2	1 Litherland Remyca
Rushall Olympic 3	1 Sheffield FC
Rushall Olympic 2	0 Gainsborough Trinity
Belper Town FC 2	0 Rushall Olympic
Notts County 2	1 Belper Town
Blackpool FC 4	0 Morecombe FC
Oldham Athletic 0	1 Burton Albion FC
PNE 2	4 Norwich City
Burnley FC 1	2 Norwich City

60% home victory ratio.

Sunday

The game kicked off at 13:00 – it was 7 degrees and rainy. I spent the first 20 minutes moving around the stadium to try and find a good spot.  There were various angles to watch this game from, but they all seemed to have some level of restricted view. 

I settled in this great spot – right next to the action for a close first half that ended 0-0.  Leicester had most of the chances and the Burnley keeper made a couple of great saves; but Burnley did look dangerous on the break. 

Just before half-time, I moved to another excellent seat, next to the half way line.  The atmosphere was like the game on Saturday; very relaxed, chilled and no swearing.

The great thing about women’s football is that the supporters can mix, without trouble and I was sat amongst a mixture of Leicester and Burnley fans – It was quiet, so I could hear their conversations. I didn’t pick up on the same stress levels as Saturday - as can be inferred from the following.

Fan 1 (female, after returning from the club house with a tray full of hot dogs) – Oh sorry, did you want a cup of tea?

Fan 2 (male) – Well I can’t send you again can I?

I checked, and Fan 2 did have legs. 

A little later their conversation continued.

Fan 1 (to fan 2) – Did your hot dog taste like water?

Much like this fan’s hotdog rating, the second half didn’t go well for Burnley.

Leicester scored 3 goals in close succession.

Fan 3 (Burnley) seemed a little optimistic when he shouted – Come on, we can get 10 back, when we’re 9 nil down.

The optimism brought reward as Burnley scored a screamer – 1-3 with about 10 minutes to go.

Fan 4 (Leicester) was equally optimistic as he shouted that’s just a consolation goal, come on Leicester we want 10.

It seemed that de la soul was wrong and 10 is the magic number (old person’s song reference). 

In the final 10 minutes, another 16 goals weren’t scored, and the game finished 1-3. 

I didn’t recall a booking and I’ve had to guess the attendance at around 170.

Highest Number of Fans

Burnley FC	8071 (4th Round Proper)
PNE	7616 (3rd Round Proper)
Notts County	5,729 (4th Qualifying Round)
Blackpool FC	5,371 (1st Round Proper)
Oldham Athletic FC	2,858 (2nd Round Proper)
Belper Town FC	528 (3rd Qualifying Round)
Brighouse Town Women	321 (3rd Round Proper)
Rushall Olympic	259 (1st Qualifying Round)
Rushall Olympic	249 (2nd Qualifying Round)
Sheffield FC	184 (Preliminary Round)
Burnley FC Women	170 (4th Round Proper)
Avro FC	150 (Extra-Preliminary Round)
Liverpool Feds LFC	109 (1st Round Proper)
Stockport County Women	75 (3rd Qualifying Round)
Chorley FC Women	61 (2nd Round Proper)
Sunderland West End Ladies	54 (1st Qualifying Round)
Curzon Ashton Ladies	44 (Preliminary Round)
Mossley Hill Ladies	24 (2nd Qualifying Round)

 Leicester City Women won £2000 in prize money.

Prize Money Leaders

Norwich City	£315,000 £180,000 (4th Round Proper) + £135,000 (3rd Round Proper)
Burton Albion FC	£54,000 (2nd Round Proper)
Blackpool FC	£36,000 (1st Round Proper)
Notts County FC	£18,750 (4th Qualifying Round)
Belper Town FC	£11,250 (3rd Qualifying Round)
Rushall Olympic	£11,250 (1st & 2nd Qualifying Rounds)
Sheffield FC	£2890 (Preliminary Round)
Brighouse Town Women	£2350 (2nd Round Proper +1st Round Proper +3rd Qualifying Round)
Litherland Remyca	£2250 (Extra-Preliminary Round)
Leicester City Women	£2000 (4th Round Proper)
Barnsley Women	£1250 (3rd Round Proper)
Mossley Hill Ladies	£1,035 (1st Qualifying Round+ Preliminary Round + Extra Preliminary Round)
Stockport County Ladies	£450 (2nd Qualifying Round)

Route Women’s

Mossley Hill Ladies	Burnley Belvedere Ladies (No show)
Curzon Ashton Ladies 2	2 Mossley Hill Ladies (2-4 Pens)
Sunderland West End Ladies 4	4 Mossley Hill Ladies (4-5 Pens)
Mossley Hill Ladies 1	3 Stockport County LFC
Stockport County LFC 2	2 Brighouse Town Ladies (2-4 Pens)
Liverpool Feds 0	4 Brighouse Town Ladies
Chorley FC Women 1	2 Brighouse Town Ladies (ET)
Brighouse Town Women 0	1 Barnsley Women
Burnley Women’s FC 1	3 Leicester City Women

89% away victory ratio.  

RIP Team and Stadium

Avro FC	Vestacare Stadium
Burnley Belvedere Ladies	Belvedere & Calder Vale Sports Club
Litherland Remyca	Litherland Sports Park
Curzon Ashton Ladies	Failsworth Sports Campus
Sheffield FC	Home of Football Stadium
Gainsborough Trinity FC	The Northolme
Sunderland West End Ladies	Herrington Recreational Park
Rushall Olympic	Dales Lane
Mossley Hill Ladies	Field of Hope Stadium
Belper Town	Christchurch Meadows
Stockport County LFC	Stockport Sports Village
Liverpool Feds LFC	Jericho Lane Sports Hub
Oldham Athletic FC	Boundary Park
Chorley FC Women	Victory Park
PNE	Deepdale
Brighouse Town Women	The Yorkshire Payments Stadium
Burnley FC	Turf Moor
Burnley Women FC	The Ruby Civil Arena

Back to 1977

Like many teams in the lower leagues, Carlisle United were struggling financially – the harsh times were showing on their league performances as were they bottom of the 2^nd division and could only afford a squad of 20 players.  The week before their match with division one leaders Liverpool, Carlisle suffered a huge home defeat, 0-6 to Southampton.   

Carlisle were also struggling to find players, due to their geographical location at the top of England.  It wasn’t looking ominous for them in this match. 

In modern money the above program cost 75p, even though this Liverpool side was full of big names like Kevin Keegan, Emyln Hughes and John Toshack – their quality showed throughout as they won comfortably 3-0.  Rather much like Liverpool in 2020, this was a difficult team to beat and they went into the 5^th Round pot as favourites for the competition (although Jurgen Klopp has stated that his 2020 side will not play any first-team players in their replay against Shrewsbury Town, as they are on a winter break).

Route 1977

Hinckley Athletic 0	1 Tividale
Oldbury United 0	4 Tividale
Tividale 0	3 Telford United
Hednesford Town 0	0 Telford United
Telford United 3	0 Hednesford Town
Telford United 2	5 Matlock Town
Matlock Town 2	0 Wigan Athletic
Mansfield Town 2	5 Matlock Town
Carlisle United 5	1 Matlock Town
Liverpool 3	0 Carlisle United

A 40% home field win ratio.

1977 5^th round draw, Liverpool V Oldham Athletic. 

Speaking of the 1970s, I’ve found this video on football stories from that era – it’s based on Preston North End (our GKA featured game in the 3^rd Round Proper of 2020).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k67CS9fQra4&feature=youtu.be (link correct on 28.01.20)

Other thangs

The BBC publicised an article about Jack Dormer and Alex Rowe who are having their own GKA for the 2019/20 season. They started at Croydon Athletic and I wish them the best of luck in getting tickets to the men’s final (link correct on 28.01.20).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51252162

The 5^th Round Men’s ties (I’ll have a look and see what tickets the GKA can get hold of).

Sheffield Wednesday v Manchester City

Reading or Cardiff City v Sheffield United

Chelsea v Shrewsbury Town or Liverpool

West Bromwich Albion v Newcastle United or Oxford United

Leicester City v Coventry City or Birmingham City

Northampton Town or Derby County v Manchester United

Southampton or Tottenham Hotspur v Norwich City

Portsmouth v Arsenal

The 5^th Round Women’s ties (I’ll have a look and see what tickets the GKA can get hold of).

Bristol City v Everton

Coventry United v Tottenham Hotspur

Leicester City v Reading

Crystal Palace or Southampton Women's FC v Brighton

Manchester City v Ipswich Town

Arsenal v Lewes

Sunderland v Birmingham City

Chelsea v Liverpool

Wish me luck…

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The FA Cup 4th Round Proper – Burnley FC V Norwich City (men) and Burnley FC Women V Leicester City Women’s FC

Saturday 25^th January 2020, 15:00, Burnley FC V Norwich City FC - I’d like to welcome Burnley FC to our blog

We discussed Burnley as a place, as a town, in our first women’s game back in August 2019.  Burnley Belvedere Ladies were our opening women’s fixture in the Extra-Preliminary round – however, that game wasn’t played as the ‘Ladies’ couldn’t get enough players together and Mossley Hill Women’s team won their opening encounter by default. 

Burnley men’s football club join our blog (along with Notts County and PNE) as one of the twelve founding members of the football league.  Burnley were established in 1882 and since then they have been Champions of England on two occasions – 1921 and 1960.  They won the FA cup in 1914 and reached the European Cup quarter finals in 1961.

Since those glory days the club has had its ups and downs; they were relegated to the 4^th Division in the mid-1980s and in 1987 the team was one result away from being knocked out of the football league altogether.  The 1990s onwards have seen a revival, as the club saw various promotions and they are currently enjoying their 4^th stint in the Premier League since 2009. 

The team are known as the clarets, due to the colour of their home shirts that they have played in since the 1910 season (initially as a tribute to the dominant team of that era, Aston Villa). 

In 2020, Burnley FC are in 14^th position in the league with 27 points – 5 above the relegation zone and 7 points behind 5^th place (this could change after their game against Manchester United tonight, 22.01.20).  

More importantly, their opponents and conquerors of PNE in our last game, Norwich City, are premier league strugglers this season. Norwich sit at the bottom of the table and are currently 10 points adrift of Burnley – plus Burnley have home field advantage, making them favourites for Saturday’s game at Turf Moor.

Speaking of Turf Moor – it has been the home of Burnley FC since 1883 and it was easy to get a ticket for this match. The GKA registered on the Burnley website, waited for the tickets to be available to non-season ticket holders, and then purchased another excellent half-way line seat for £20.    

The GKA will be travelling 23.1 miles from Deepdale Stadium, in which Norwich City beat Preston North End.

To Turf Moor Stadium in Burnley…

In the GKA official routes, Northampton Town beat Burton Albion in the last round, and they have a home tie against Derby County, live on BT sport – Friday 24^th January at 20:00. In the women’s official route, Barnsley Women drew an away tie against Tottenham Women – Sunday 26^th January at 13:00. 

However, this weekend is a Burnley GKA special as it is the first time that we have covered games of both the Men’s and Women’s teams of the same club, on the same weekend.

Sunday 26^th January, 13:00, Burnley FC Women V Leicster City Women

I’d like to welcome Burnley Women FC to our blog.

Burnley Women’s Football Club is fully affiliated with the Burnley Men’s Team.  They were founded in 1995 as Burnley FC Girls and Ladies and then in 2018, changed their name to Burnley FC Women, playing their home games at Arbories Memorial Sports Stadium in Padiham, Burnley.

In the 2017/18 season they qualified for the 1st Round Proper of the FA cup for the first time in their history – eventually losing to Cardiff city in the 3rd Round Proper. This season they have done one better already.

Burnley Women play in the 3^rd Tier of the Women’s Football Pyramid – The Women’s National League Division One North.  At this midway point of the season, they are in 4^th place (out of 12), only 3 point behind 2^nd with a game in hand.

Their FA cup opponents play in the Women’s Championship; the 2^nd tier of the Women’s League Pyramid, so this is going to be a challenging game for Burnley Women – will home field advantage help? We’ll have to see, as every women’s game so far that the GKA has covered has seen a victory for the away side – the cup will decide!

 I’d like to welcome Leicester City Women’s team to our blog.

Leicester City Women’s Football Team is also affiliated to the Men’s Team in Leicester.  The club was founded in 2004 and after 4 successive promotions entered the 2nd tier of the women’s game.  After relegation in 2013 and a (another) league restructure it effectively placed them in the 4^th tier of the pyramid.

In 2016 they were back in the Northern Division One and then in 2018 they were given a licence to play in the Women’s Championship. They are currently in 6^th position (out of 11) – 20 points behind 2^nd place and only 5 points above the relegation zone.

This should be a cracker of a game.   

The GKA will be travelling 27 miles from Brighouse Town FC…

To the Arbories Memorial Sports Stadium…

Other thangs (mainly whinging)

Another GKA whinge about the lack of publicity in the women’s game.  The League Cup quarter finals were last Wednesday and after the result came, the FA site and BBC site simply stated – Semi Final Draw to be announced.  There have been no major announcements and I’ve had to actively check their page on a regular basis to find out that Manchester United are playing Chelsea and Manchester City are playing Arsenal – these are arguably the 4 tops teams in the English women’s game and as per usual, it’s not being promoted very well.

There was an interesting article on the BBC website about the prize money disparity between the women’s and the men’s FA cup.  As I’ve made this journey, it has been quite clear that there is little financial support for the women’s game at grassroots level.

This is illustrated in the two tables below. I have been to all rounds, both men’s and women's since the Extra-Preliminary games in August 2019.

GKA Stadium costs so far – Men v Women (up to 3^rd Round Proper)

Men £94

£8 Women

GKA Prize Money – Men V Women (up to 3^rd Round Proper)

Men £271,390

Women £11,085

The winner of the men’s final will receive 5 times more money than the winner of the women’s final.

I am a realist, and I understand that a lot of this is down to market forces and perceived worth etc, but women’s team have stated that an away tie in the FA cup can put clubs into a financial deficit. The GKA has also been following the 1976/77 FA cup to look for comparisons and men’s teams in those days were in a similar position.

The FA have stated that they are developing a 5-year strategy to make the women’s game more commercially viable – small things like actively promoting a League Cup Final might help.

1977

Liverpool V Carlisle United is our GKA featured game (taken from Journey to Wembley by Brian James).

On a more serious note for 2020, should betting sites really be having the rights to stream FA cup ties?

Whinge over – let’s focus on our FA cup bumper bonanza weekend in Burnley as it’s going to be great.

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