One goal is enough as Penrith knock out Sunderland RCA

I am now off and running on the Road to Wembley from Scotland.

The FA Cup is the oldest football tournament in the world and dates back to season 1871-72. Apart from suspensions during war years it has been competed for every season since. The 2016-17 competition is the 136^th edition of the tournament and started this weekend. There have been a few tweaks over the years but the basic premise that one loss and you are out has remained. The sudden death nature of each match and the fact that 736 clubs from all different levels of football have entered helps to sustain the FA Cup as the most romantic and mystical of all football competitions. By the end of this weekend 184 teams will be knocked out of the FA Cup before the season has hardly started. Yesterday I headed to Penrith to see whether it would be Penrith AFC or Sunderland RCA who would have to ‘concentrate on the league’ from now on.

Setting off from Penicuik at 1100 yesterday

Saturday the 6^th AugustPenrith 1 Sunderland Ryhope Community Association 0

 Your correspondent took in the whole experience as follows:

Arriving at the Frenchfields Stadium at 2.20pm

Pre Match Communications: This could not be better. Both football clubs have been incredibly generous in giving me access to individuals who have helped me find out the ‘Scottish slant’ on this fixture. I am particularly grateful to Gee Errington at Sunderland RCA and to Matthew Read (or Wizzer as I now know him as) and the physio Susan Pollock at Penrith.

Penrith Physio Susan Pollock and Matthew Read aka Wizzer

Given the way Gee ‘sold’ the club to me I was disappointed that this match did not go to a replay and I have missed out on the chance to visit Meadow Park in Ryhope. 10/10

Pre Match Pint: The nearest pub to the ground is the Cross Keys in the Carleton Village area of Penrith about half a mile away. A lovely wee pub with truly great beer on sale. The pre match libation was a pint of Tirrels a local beer from the Lakeland Brewery. Slipped down a treat.

The Cross Keys - nearest pub to the Frenchfields Staium

On arrival I found out that there was bar inside the ground. A bar that remained open throughout the match. Great! Behind the bar I noted yet another link between Penrith and Scottish football.

Inside the Club Bar at Frenchfields: Open during play - handy!

 Above, to the right of the clock, a picture of a great hero of mine, Danny Grainger is on display. Danny represented my beloved Hearts with great distinction between 2011 and 2013. Most notably he scored one of the goals in THAT match. Danny converted a penalty early in the second half as Hearts beat Hibs 5-1 in the 2012 Scottish Cup Final. Danny is a native of Penrith and a proud Cumbrian. Now 30 years old he is currently club captain of Carlisle United. Seeing Danny arms aloft celebrating scoring for the Jambos was enough to warm the cockles of my heart. Just to make sure my cockles were warm I had a wee whisky from the bar early in the second half! 8/10 

Programme: The match programme is a good effort for a club at this level – 36 pages mostly in colour. A good article on the history of Sunderland RCA and an excellent article on the history of the FA Cup entitled ‘A very English’ competition’. 7/10

Ground: I have a thing about out of town grounds. Being an old traditional football anorak I have this romantic notion that all football grounds should be in the centre of town and should be at least 100 years old! Penrith moved out of town to The Frenchfields in 2009. According to those from the football club the old ground was falling to bits. The Frenchfields Stadium is a new slightly out of town ground but has lots to recommend it. The views for one thing are spectacular

Frenchfields Stadium: A pictureque setting for a football match

 Also the main stand may be small but it affords very good views of the action. Being narrow and tall rather than wide and short it means that if you are near the top of the stand you get an elevated position. Here are a couple pics taken from the top of the stand

The second half about to get underway

I though water breaks were only allowed in extreme heat!

 So, all in all, I was able to get over my prejudices and concede that this out-of-town ground does the job for the Bonny Blues 7/10

Atmosphere: The atmosphere for what was an important do-or-die match was very convivial. I have not found out the official attendance yet but I am guessing it was about 150 with the vast majority sporting the Penrith colours. The match attracted a good mix with some of the older boys dotted round the perimeter fence and some of the younger lads in the stand – close to the bar. Good encouragement for the team from all corners and no vitriol or rancour. 7/10

Entertainment Value:  The match itself was a bit of a curate’s egg – good in parts. Some good football played by both teams, some excellent defending by both back fours but also some misplaced passes and quite a few unforced errors. 

Some of the first half action seen from opposite the main stand

The game was decided by a single goal halfway through the second half. With Penrith on the attack it looked as if the Ryhope based team had cleared the danger when they got the ball out of their penalty area. However, as the ball bounced loose, Penrith’s Jake Smith struck a low shot through a ruck of players for a smartly taken goal. As Sunderland RCA became desperate in their search for an equaliser their challenges became a wee bit more agricultural. With a few minutes to go Sunderland RCA’s Danni Lay received a second booking for such a mistimed tackle and hence was forced to take an early bath.

Danni Lay gets his first booking in the first half

 Despite going down to ten men SRCA created a very late chance for an equaliser to keep them in the cup but as the last minute acrobatic overhead kick went wide Penrith knew they would be progressing to the next round. The best players for Penrith were young left back Tyler Bowman, goal scorer Jake Smith and centre forward Martyn Coleman. For the men from Wearside the best players were qualified-to-play-for-Scotland Ross McNab and the battle scarred veterans left back Steven Stewart and centre forward Colin Larkin.  6/10

Scottishness: As regular readers of this blog will know the unique feature of this particular ‘Road to Wembley’ is that for each match I will be looking for a connection between the fixture and Scotland. Thanks to the pre-match info provided by Wizzer of Penrith and Gee Errington from SHRCA I got lots of material to work on. Sunderland RCA have Scottish blood in their veins going back a long way. Up until recently the octogenarian former Scottish international George Herd was the first team coach at Meadow Park. Yesterday I met someone who knows George very well, SRCA committee member and fellow Scotsman John McLennan – known in Ryhope as ‘Scottish John’.

Gee Errington and 'Scottish John' from Sunderland RCA

 In 1999 an amalgamation of Kennek Roker and Kennek RCA led to the evolution of the club now known as Sunderland RCA. John played for Kennek Roker and is now heavily involved with SRCA. He told me that his football career in Scotland had seen him turn out for both Blantyre Celtic and Carluke Rovers. John had some great stories of George Herd’s playing career including the time he played 70 minutes for Scotland with a broken ankle – no subs allowed in the late fifties.

The main link between the current Sunderland RCA team and Bella Caledonia is grandson of Sunderland 60s legendary Scotsman Jim McNab. The young Ross McNab was kind enough to stop off for a photo after completing his pre-match warm up.

Ross McNab - just before the action started yesterday

 Gee had told me that Ross had a cultured left foot and this was in evidence throughout the match yesterday. The young third generation Scotsman was arguably RCA’s best player yesterday. After a nervous first five minutes he settled in well, made all his tackles, made some great clearing headers and used that wand of a left foot to great effect to set up some good attacking positions.

Ross McNab (Grandson of Jim McNab) heads clear 

On the Penrith team the main Scottish link is that their physio Susan Pollock who hails from Dumfries and still lives in Scotland – just over the border in Gretna. In a pre match dialogue with Susan she had told me that her particular Scottish trait that she brings to her work with Penrith is a ‘no nonsense approach’. This was in evidence yesterday when she was called on to the pitch four times to despatch treatment to injured Penrith players. On each occasion after a quick consultation and some encouragement the players were deemed fit enough to continue and so they did. Maybe she has a wee drop of whisky soaked into that tartan magic sponge. I know nothing about physiotherapy but clearly whatever it was she did and / or said it worked.

After more success with her tartan magic sponge Susan leaves the field of play

It is obviously very early days on the Road to Wembley from Scotland but it may prove difficult to find a greater number of Scottish connections in future ties 9/10

Match day catering: The spectator sustenance was provided by a burger van parked on the edge of the car park and poking in to the ground through a gap in the fence. For me the match day snack has to be a pie and this stall did not sell pies. Boo ! I did have a cheeseburger for £3 and a coffee for a £1. 5/10

The pie-less Blues Cafe

Value for money: A decent match between two well matched teams both trying to play good football – all for £6. Excitement towards the end with Sunderland RCA desperately trying to find an equaliser to keep them in the Cup despite being reduced to 10 men 8/10

The je ne sais quoi factor: I have to give a high mark in this category as I have never before attended a match as a neutral that I have found so fascinating. Having committed to this blog I was able to actually meet loads of people that I had ‘met’ on twitter over the last five weeks  including  stadium announcer Craig McGlasson. Craig announced to the crowd before the match that I was On The Road to Wembley and that was pretty weird. Great also to meet up with Gee Errington and Wizzer (Matthew Read). Wizzer’s involvement was particularly interesting. The Penrith Manager was still on holiday yesterday hence the coach became manager for the day and injured player Matthew Read became coach for the day. Young Wizzer was the most vocal of all of those on the touchline as he cajoled and encouraged his team mates to victory. I am hoping to see Wizzer on the pitch in the next round.

I was also knocked out by the hospitality shown to me by all those involved with Penrith AFC. I was shown round their club rooms at half time by Karl Collinson who handles the Penrith twitter feed and given the background of a club that every week fields 13 different teams. Clearly a club on the up and up. Thanks guys for a truly memorable day … and the sun shone throughout 9/10

Overall ‘Road to Wembley from Scotland’ rating 76/100. Good luck to Sunderland RCA for the forthcoming season in the Northern League. I will be looking out for their results. Congratulations to Penrith. I will be there when they travel to either Barnoldswick or Dunston in the next round on Saturday 20^th August. I am looking forward to it already.

Miles on clock for this match 226

Total miles on the Road to Wembley from Scotland So far 226.

… and now off to Tynecastle to see my beloved Hearts take on Celtic. C’mon the Jambos!