The game on Thursday 5th March 2020, Derby County V Manchester United FC

Sun 29^th February to Wednesday 4^th March

There had been a lot of back-to-back cup games on the telly-box in the run-up to this match. 

On Saturday 29^th February, the first domestic silverware (I don’t count the Charity/Community shield or whatever it is now called)  was up for grabs in the women’s game, as Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 in their league cup final – this game was live on BT Sports and was played at Notts County’s ground in front of a record crowd, for a league cup final, of 6,743 fans – things are moving in the right direction for the women’s game, but this crowd pales into insignificance when compared to the men’s final on the following day – 82,149 fans turned up at Wembley to see Manchester City beat Aston Villa 2-1, and lift the League Cup for the third year in a row.

FA Cup action started the following night as Arsenal beat Portsmouth 2-0 (BT Sports) and the BBC joined the party to broadcast Chelsea 2 – 0 Liverpool on Tuesday night, and Manchester City 1 -0 Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday night.  This was followed by a live broadcast of the Quarter Final Draw (see further down blog).

Thursday 5^th March

The FA Cup was all-over the place (almost as if people cared about it), and Thursday’s final match of Derby County V Manchester United was back on BT Sport. 

As part of the GKAs promotion for this Pulitzer Prize Winning showcase of a blog, I always contact the featured teams to see if they will promote this journey to their fans.  Most teams ignore me, and the women appeared more engaged in the earlier rounds.  However, I’ve not had a response since Brighouse Town V Barnsley in the women’s 3^rd Round proper – in which both teams replied. For the men, the last team to respond was Ebbsfleet United, back in the 1^st Round Proper – until now as Ellie, from Manchester United, sent me an email to say that they would pass my blog information over to their social media team.  Nothing came of it, but at least it was a response – thank you Ellie of Manchester United.

Back to the actual game…

The trip to Derby was meant to take 2hrs 8mins.

With a 19.45 kick, I set off at 16.30 with the idea of a chilled drive and a service station stop off for 30mins for a coffee.  However, like most trips down the M6, the journey took much longer, due to slow moving traffic. At one point I passed a bus, pulled over on the hard shoulder, with around 20 fans urinating into a bush by the side of the road.  I only arrived at Pride Park at 19:00 (without a coffee stop off). 

Then came the fun of driving around in circles for 10 minutes, trying to find a parking space – I decided to pay £7.70 to stop in a car park directly opposite the ground – there where fans everywhere and two guys ran into this car park for more bush urination. It appears that: SUM=Football + alcohol = caught short!

I’d arrived...

And I was impressed by the magnificence of Pride Park.

This was the famous statue of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor as mentioned in the GKA’s previous report.

Right next to this statue was a burger stall and I bought an ‘average tasting’ double cheeseburger for £5.  A single cheeseburger was only £3.50, which is a good price, considering that it cost £6 for a single cheeseburger at a recent Everton Women’s home game I’d attended – I always thought that things were meant to be cheaper t’up North!

Whilst eating my burger, a crowd of noisy Manchester United fans, walked past, loudly asking the question ‘Why don’t City Fuck off home?’  They appeared intimidating and a Derby Fan next to me mumbled, ‘Why don’t you lot fuck off home?’

I took a little tour of the Stadium.

                           And noticed this Ram Est.1884 logo.

                    All sides of the ground looked impressive.

The GKA has seen many dogs in stadiums, but this is the first time that it’s come across a horse outside a stadium.

By the time I’d found my turnstile, it was rammed – lots of fans were saying, ‘Why is it so busy, we’ve been sold out before?’

It was slow moving and 10 queues seemed to be filtering into 5 possible turnstiles.

This was the home-end and there were a couple of guys in the queue wearing Manchester United scarfs and hats.  This was greeted by passive aggressive grumbles of disapproval by the Derby fans. It was difficult for me, as a lifelong-Manchester United Fan, as I was staying neutral for the purpose of the blog. Even I was thinking it was a bit disrespectful to blatantly show off your support when you are ‘in the wrong end.’

The queue took 15 minutes, followed by lots of stairs, and then even more stairs.  By the time I’d got to my seat; I’d already missed the first 6 minutes of the game.

However, I couldn’t get to my seat as it was too busy, so I sat in the first spare seat I could find on my row.

Inevitably, after a further 5 minutes, I was moved along and was forced to find my real seat.

Another cracking half-way line view.

Less than a third of the Stadium were United fans, but they were noisy – very noisy.  It was a tremendous amount of away support and for the first half, they out-sang and out-chanted the Derby Fans.  I am always fascinated by the tribal nature of human beings and as a United fan I felt detached from them – almost ‘as if’ they were the enemy, but at the same time, I was one of them, hiding amongst the Derby fans, undercover, the enemy within. 

The Derby fans where I was sat, watched the game in virtual silence, only making the add noise of ‘ooooh’ or an occasional applause. 

Briefly, after the United fans chanted ‘You’re only hear to see United,’ there was a loud Derby response of ‘You’re only hear to see Wayne Rooney.’ This made me smile…

The game itself was over after United’s first goal went in, and the United fans spent most of the second half singing Wayne Rooney’s name. 

When it went to 0-3 with 20 minutes to ago, the Derby fan next to me got up and left, ‘Where not coming back from this.’

I left on 85 minutes to try and beat the traffic, but when I got outside, it appears that I wasn’t the only one, as there were people and cars everywhere – 31,379 fans attended, but it seemed a lot more than this.

Attendances – Men V Women

Men 62,145

2,858 Women

Highest Number of Fans

Derby County FC	31, 379 (5th Round Proper)
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)
Manchester City Women FC	2,000 (5th 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)

There were 5 bookings during the game.

Penalties and Cards – Men v Women

Penalties - Men 2	3 Women
Yellow Cards – Men 35	5 Women
Red Cards – 1	0 Women

Manchester United won £360,000 in prize money.

Prize Money – Men V Women

Men £811,390

Women £16,085

Prize Money Leaders 

Manchester United FC	£360,000 (5th Round Proper)
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)
Manchester City Women FC	£3000 (5th Round Proper)
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 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
Derby County FC 0	3 Manchester United FC

54.55% home win ratio.

Eventually I did get out, and I was home by 23:25.  Another great adventure….   

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
Derby County FC	Pride Park

26^th February 1977 FC Cup 5^th Round Liverpool FC V Oldham Athletic

In 1977 Liverpool FC were hot – reds hot!  From 1964 onwards they had won 4 league titles, and the EUFA Cup twice (equivalent of the Europa League). They’d also lifted the FA Cup twice in that period as winning becomes a habit.

Things were different back in those days – there wasn’t as much money in football and Brain James (author of Journey to Wembley) tells a story about how Liverpool Club Captain Emlyn Hughes had to visit the club doctor on his way to training – the club doctor was simply a local GP, and team members had to go visit him at a local surgery along with all the other locals in the area.  

Diet wasn’t seen as important either – Liverpool did have a great training ground and state-of-the art gym facility, however after training they were often served Steak with mountains of Veg, followed by steamed pudding and custard. Not forgetting the copies amounts of alcohol consumed, during a 2-night celebration of their 4 th Round FC Cup victory against Carlisle.     

Despite their poor diets, they trained hard and in late February 1977 Liverpool FC were on course for an unprecedented treble – League, European Cup and FC Cup. They were the team to beat and many players argued that they were difficult to beat, simply because they hated losing – at anything – ‘This is Anfield’.

In 1977, the city that was depressed by high unemployment, urban decay, wasteland and knocked down slum areas – many had moved to the Wirral or surrounding new towns.  None of this affected the massive support of the football club and Liverpool home games often attracted crowds of up to 50,000.  Both Liverpool and Everton were 2 massively rich (for the time) football clubs in an area surrounded by poverty. 

Liverpool won this game 3-1, without playing particularity well, and Oldham were happy to get their share of the gate receipts, £13,500 (£84,430 in modern money, not much for playing a top Premiership side, but far more than the women are getting at this level in 2020).

Liverpool then had to shift their focus onto their next European Cup tie against St Etienne.

In the next round of the FA Cup they drew Middlesbrough at Anfield.

 

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
Liverpool 3	1 Oldham Athletic

A 45.45% home field win ratio.

Next in 2020

Women’s QF Draw

1 Arsenal V Tottenham

2 Leicester City V Manchester City

3 Everton V Chelsea

4 Brighton & Hove Albion V Birmingham City

The GKA already has tickets for Everton v Chelsea.

Men’s QF Draw

1 Sheffield United v Arsenal

2 Newcastle United v Manchester City

3 Norwich City v Manchester United

4 Leicester City v Chelsea

Some interesting matchups above and the GKA will attend whatever game they can get tickets for (provided that the Corona virus doesn’t shut down the whole country). 

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The FA Cup 5th Round Proper – Derby County FC V Manchester United FC

Thursday 5^th March 2020, 19:45, - I’d like to welcome Derby County FC to our blog.

For the fourth time in this GKA campaign, we’ll be heading to one of the twelve founding members of the football league (we’ve already been welcomed by Notts County, Preston North End and Burnley FC).

Derby County FC was founded in 1884 and have competed in every season of the English Football League system since the league’s inception in 1888. They have played in black and white colours since the 1890s and are nicknamed the Rams.   

During their long history, their most successful period began in 1967, when Brian Clough and Peter Taylor took over as Manager and Assistant Manager – being crowned as League Champions for the first time in 1972 (they won the title again in 1975) and reaching the semi-final of the European Cup in 1973.    

Clough and Taylor left in 1973 and they went on to further success by winning league titles and two consecutive European Cups (1979 and 1980) with Nottingham Forest.  Clough and Taylor’s impact on Derby County was recognised by a statue of the pair being erected outside Derby's home ground (Pride Park) in 2010.

Derby County have only won the FC Cup once, and this was in 1946. 

From 1895, the club played at Sir Francis Ley’s Baseball Ground – In 1997 they moved to their current home at Pride Park.

Recent history has brought an interesting twist to this 2020 FA Cup clash as Derby County’s new club captain is Wayne Rooney. Wayne made 393 appearances for Manchester United (2004-2017) and he is their all-time record goal scorer – this will be the fist time that he has faced his old club since returning from a stint in the USA at D.C. United.  

   

Speaking of which, the GKA welcomes Manchester United FC to our blog…

The two most successful clubs in English Football history are current Premiership leaders and Champions League holders Liverpool FC and their local rivals down the M62, Manchester United FC.  

The GKA has already mentioned Manchester City, as they are the current holders of the FA Cup, and the Etihad is where our journey began.  Now it’s time to talk about the other side of Manchester.

Manchester United where formed as Newton Heath in 1878 until they changed their name in 1902 – they’ve played at Old Trafford Stadium since 1910. 

Since then, the club has had a rich and varied history and two highly successful managers in Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson.  The club had to rebuild after the tragedy of the Munich Air Disaster in 1958, they were the first English team to win the European Cup in 1968, and the only English club to have won the treble of FA Cup, League Title and Champions League in 1999 – currently manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored the winner in that Champions League final. 

Manchester United have 20 league titles, 5 league cups, 3 European cups, 1 Europa league and 1 Cup winners cup (amongst other honours). 

For the purpose of this blog the GKA is more interested in their 12 FA Cup victories (only Arsenal have won more with 13). United first won the FA Cup in 1909 and their last success came in 2016 (Louis Van Gaal’s last game before he was replaced by Jose Mourinho, who was then replaced in 2018 by Oli). 

Since Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 the club has been through several re-building seasons and has struggled to keep up with Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool for English dominance (not forgetting Leicester City’s title winning season of 2016).

As Derby are in the Championship and Manchester United are in the Premiership, one would think that the Manchester side are favourites in this game. However, the last time these teams met in a Cup Competition (2018 Carabao Cup 3^rd Round) it was Derby who came out on top – maybe that memory could spare-them-on for another victory, especially as they are the home side.

Derby County are based in Derbyshire, bordering Greater Manchester, in the East Midlands.  A large proportion of the Peak District sits within the County and so does the southern extremity of the Pennine Way. 

Tickets for this game were made available to the general public on Tuesday 25^th February at 10am.  Until that point, they had been kept aside for season ticket holders only.  At 10am, the GKA had to register with Derby and purchase the tickets online – this was a relatively pain free experience and there were plenty of tickets still available. As the GKA has turned into a bit of football viewing snob, and only likes seats on the half-way line, I paid £31 for my seat.

Stadium costs so far – Men v Women

Men £145

£19.50 Women

The GKA will be travelling 121 miles from Burnley Football Club in the last round…

To Pride Park Stadium…

Women’s Tickets for Quarter Final and 1977 5^th Round

In the 1977 5^th Round we’ll be looking at Liverpool V Oldham Athletic.

The GKA has manged to secure tickets for the 2020 Women’s FA Cup Quarter Final – Everton V Chelsea on Sunday 15^th March.

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Sunday 16th February, 14:00, Manchester City Women FC V Ipswich Town Women FC

The theme of the morning was Storm Dennis.  Last weekend, several sporting events had been cancelled due to Storm Ciara and I was on vigilant Twitter and Trainline watch, to check that my trip to Manchester was (A) Game still on, and (B) Trains still running. It became clear that it was an all-clear for both accounts.

The reason that the GKA had chosen to take the train, rather than drive, is because the Manchester City Women’s Website information stated that ‘parking was via park and ride, and that local resident parking was permit only.’ As I don’t know the area, I thought I’d rely on the one service that is renowned for its punctuality and reliability (especially during bad weather) – Northern Rail.

It was a tale of two journeys – on the way there, at 12:11pm, the platform was packed, and I had to fight a swirling pack of piranhas (do fish come in packs?) in order to board the carriage. As per usual, people were pushing and not allowing anybody to alight, and I ended up crammed by the door like a sardine (fish analogy complete).

On a plus side, the train was on-time, but are 3 carriages enough for a Sunday peak travel period on a main line? I know the answer to this rhetorical question and I’m sure it is something that Boris will sort with another oven-ready piece of rhetoric.  

The train arrived a few minutes late into Manchester and I set off walking to the Manchester Academy Stadium.  As previously mentioned, the GKA had visited the Etihad on September 7^th 2019, so I followed same route, by memory – it was a different journey.  Last time I was speed walking with a belly full of burrito, through a crowd of over 30,000 supporters. This time, I had plenty of time, an empty tummy and it was eerily quiet. I appeared to be the only person in Manchester heading to the game. The streets and roads felt empty and it was another clear difference between the men’s and women’s games. Manchester City Women are one of the top three sides in English Football, and it was like nobody cared that this great team was about to play a 5^th Round tie in the FA Cup. A game in which a victory would take them to the Quarter Finals of the competition.

My lonely journey took me past the men’s stadium.

There was an interconnecting bridge between the two stadiums, and it was at this point that I spotted other fans – I wasn’t alone after all.

Just as I passed this pre-view window, I walked past two women and one asked ‘Does Gill Scott play for Manchester United or Manchester City?’

I murmured ‘City’ and then paused to take a picture of the ‘Emy Stadium.’

Before I was allowed inside, I was strip searched by an air-port style security team – phone, keys, wallet taken out of pockets etc.

My ticket had cost me £8.50

Stadium costs so far – Men v Women

Men £114

£19.50 Women

I took the standard GKA corner flag photo. 

I was handed a team sheet. 

There was an area in which young people were playing table tennis and a member of security told me that I wasn’t allowed to walk around the whole stadium. So, I took a seat, near the front, around the half-way line.  

The game kicked off and as expected it was dominated by Manchester City.  A heavy rainstorm hit the front seats and a large section of the crowd moved further back up the stand to avoid the rain.  

I was impressed by both the stadium and the atmosphere and It didn’t take long before Manchester City were 1-0 up. The above photo shows my higher vantage point and just how close the two stadiums are to each other.   Within 30 mins, Manchester City were 3 nil up and the game was becoming a formality. Ipswich Town had given a good fight in the initial exchanges, but the gulf in class between a 1^st tier club and a 4^th tier club was obvious. Ipswich were the lowest ranked team still left in the competition and, like most women’s teams I’ve watched along this journey, they had 7 teenagers in their starting 11 and an average age of 21. They’d won 6 games to reach this stage and performed brilliantly to get this far – a massive achievement for the club.  

It remained 3 nil at half time, and the GKA went for it’s wonder.

Right next to the toilet was this little merchandising stall.

And this was the fanciest café that the GKA has come across so far.  Most grounds stick to pies, chips, burgers and hot dogs, but not at Manchester City Women.  

I bought and ate my posh football dinner of a falafel wrap and rosemary and sea salt wedges - which cost £6.20 along with a hot drink.

After properly checking my ticket, I realised that I’d paid for a seat in a fancier part of the stadium. 

I moved to my snug, leather, arm-rested chair for the 2^nd half. It was still chilly and windy, so the extra comfort helped.

They weren’t quite as fancy as the seats to my left…

As can be seen by the score, the game was a completely one-sided affair and it finished 10 nil. I guess it was still a great experience for the Ipswich Town Team and the 400 fans that had followed them on the long trip up the country. Information doesn’t seem to be too forthcoming on how many total fans were there, so I’d have to guess at around 2000 (the capacity is 7000, only one stand was open, and it wasn’t completely full. 

Attendances – Men V Women

Men 30,766

2858 Women

The GKA was impressed by the set-up at Manchester City. Other teams should follow their example for the women’s’ game to grow. They have two stadiums within visual distance (Chelsea Women play 7 miles from Stamford Bridge; Arsenal Women play 12 miles from the Emirates Stadium and Manchester United Women play 15 miles from Old Trafford). Manchester City Women must feel part of the Manchester City club as they can see the Emirates as they train and play their home games. It is a stadium that is fully dedicated to Manchester City, covered in corporate blue and a scoreboard that flashes up pre-prepared images of the players that have put the ball in the net – Manchester City are delivering the correct message to the players and the fans. 

I am aware that the set up at Manchester City is partly ‘accidental’ as the whole complex was built for the Manchester Commonwealth games, and it is not practical for most established teams to build an adjacent second ground for their women and academy players. However, smaller clubs can still send out positive messages – Lewes FC are a non-league club, but their women’s team has managed to make it to the women’s championship – Lewes are the only club in that world that has an equal pay policy for its men’s and women's teams. This is only practical due to the level that the men play at, but it shows that Lewes are a forward-thinking club. I thought that my Falafel and Rosemary Wedges were posh, but according to ex England International goalkeeper, Rachel Brown Ennis, at Lewes home games, they serve Processco in beach huts - the epitome of posh.   
       

Manchester City Women won £3000 in prize money.

Prize Money – Men V Women

Men £451,390

Women £16,085

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
Manchester City Women FC 10	0 Ipswich Town Women

80% away victory ratio.  

Most of the other games in the women’s competition were postponed due to that pesky storm Dennis and this is reflected in last nights draw.

Women’s FA Cup Quarter Final Draw 17.02.20

Crystal Palace or Brighton v Birmingham City

Everton v Chelsea

Arsenal or Lewes v Tottenham Hotspur

Leicester City or Reading v Manchester City

Last night’s draw was on BBC Radio 5 live at 20.45 and the GKA is going to be ‘all-over’ that Everton V Chelsea game.

Men’s

The GKA still doesn’t know where it is heading for the men’s 5^th Round on the 4^th March – tickets only go on sale to the general public next week.

As for my train journey back – the cold had got inside me as I’d been sat still in the Manchester Academy Stadium.  A strong powerwalk back to the station allowed me to warmup and once there, my train was on time, and it was an excellent, lovely, brand new, warm, seated ride home – maybe Boris has worked his magic already.

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The FA Cup 5th Round Proper – Manchester City Women V Ipswich Town FC Women and ? for the men!

Sunday 16^th February 2020, 14:00, - I’d like to re-welcome Manchester City Women FC to our blog...

At the beginning of our journey we discussed the Manchester City Women’s team as they are the current holders of the Women’s FA Cup.  On Star Wars Day (May the 4^th, 2019) City beat West Ham United 3-0, in front of 43,264 fans.  Manchester City, along with Arsenal and Chelsea, are top favourites to win the competition in 2020 – this will be the 50^th Women’s FA Cup Final. 

Back on 7^th September 2019, the GKA visited the Etihad and was part of the 31,213 fans who witnessed the first ever competitive Manchester Women’s Derby (see post entitled a heavy burrito and a strong walk).

City Women won 1-0 in a closely fought encounter and the GKA is looking forward to it’s second trip to see the Manchester City Women, however, this time it is to visit their usual home ground – The Manchester Academy Stadium.

City were originally formed in 1988 as Manchester City Ladies – they were one of the first teams in the North West to be affiliated with their Men’s club and this link allowed them to start in the 2^nd Division of 4 (the North West Regional Women’s Football League).  

Success wasn’t always around at City, as both the men’s and women’s teams were relegated in 1997, and there was a serious lack of money and resources for the women’s side. At one point, they were close to merging with Stockport County Ladies. However, they stuck together and got promoted the following season.

Various shake-ups to the women’s football pyramid happened and in 2010 the Women’s Super League was created.  In 2014, City had a minor relaunch, as they changed their name to Manchester City Women; brought on board English Internationals Jim Scott and Steph Houghton; and appointed Nick Cushing as their manager (Nick has recently left the club to pursue a career in the USA).

Since then, success has happened as they won the WLS League Title in 2016, the League Cup in 2014, 2016 and 2019 – plus the FA Cup in 2019. Manchester City Women are a major force in Women’s Football, and it will be it be difficult for their opponents to beat them.

Speaking of which, the GKA welcomes Ipswich Town FC Women to our blog…

Ipswich Town FC women play in the Women’s National Division South East, which is the 4th tier of the women’s pyramid.  They are currently residing at the top of their Division; 1 point clear of AFC Wimbledon, with a game in-hand.

The GKA could not find any information about the history of the club, however we do know that they are affiliated to the men’s team; they play their home matches at the Goldstar Ground in Felixstowe (low down on the East Coast of England – around 4 hours, 30 minutes from Manchester); their nickname is The Tractor Girls and they have a supporters club of the same title - at away games it's Tractor Girls on Tour.

It’s a long journey for the tracker girls, but a much shorter one for the GKA. 

Tickets were £8.50 and easy to purchase by registering on the Manchester City Website – the GKA will be travelling 26.6 miles from Padiham Football Club (where Burnley Women lost to Leicester City in the last round) to…  

The Manchester Academy Stadium…

Men’s Tickets

This is where the difference in the men’s and women’s game can be seen clearly.  Women’s tickets are easy to purchase, and they are cheap in comparison (£8.50 compared to approx. £30 in this round).  The GKA was looking at men’s matches in which it didn’t have to travel to far, as the men’s 5^th Round is scheduled to be played on Wednesday 4^th March – an evening game means leaving work early and getting home late.

The GKA first looked at Sheffield Wednesday v Man City, but tickets are not available to anyone who wasn’t already registered at the Club before 24^th January 2020 – that’s the GKA out of the equation.

Most other games are being offered to Season Ticket holders and current members first.

The next closest game is West Bromwich Albion V Newcastle United – tickets are not available to the general public until Monday 24^th February.

Moving slightly further away is Derby County V Manchester United and those tickets are not available to the general public until Tuesday 25^th February.

The next game, in terms of distance is Leicester City V Birmingham City – their tickets are available to the public a week sooner, on Monday 17^th but the GKA would rather not travel that far…

Other games are based in the London area and on the south coast.

At this stage, in 2014 when the GKA last completed this journey, following an official route in which it always followed the winner to the next round, there were no such issues in getting tickets – I went to Everton V Swansea and bought tickets straight away.

Let’s see what happens to the men’s route in 2020 and hope that Sunday’s Women’s game isn’t cancelled due to further predicted storms.

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