The draw for FA Cup Q3 has been made: It is Spennymoor v Chorley next: What does Spennymoor mean to me?

Yesterday the draw for the 3rd Qualifying round of the FA Cup was made. There was a 50 50 chance that I would be heading for Lancashire to see my new team Chorley play a home tie. There was also a very good chance that I would be heading a long way from home to see Chorley play an away tie at a venue far from the Scottish border. Instead they have been drawn to play Spennymoor Town away. So once again I will be making the short hop over the border to the north east of England, this time to County Durham, to see Spennymoor Town entertain Chorley. That is serendipity! So what does Spennymoor mean to me?

The word Spennymoor has been in the Donkin family for over 50 years. When we were all much younger the family lived in Newcastle and my brother Brian (The Dook) remembers getting the bus from Newcastle bus station in the early sixties to go fishing and there was always one over-enthusiastic conductor who was in charge of the Spennymoor bus. "Any more for Spennymoor!" he would holler.

Their football team has a much more impressive history than the wailings of a mad Geordie bus conductor. In particular they have been very successful in recent years. In 2013 they emulated the feat of the 2012 Dunston UTS team by winning the FA Vase final at Wembley - beating Tunbridge Wells 2-1 under the arch.

The Spennymoor Town FA Vase winning team from 2013

In recent times Spennymoor Town have secured two promotions in the last three seasons to catapult themselves into the higher echelons of English non-league football. In 2014 they were champions of the Northern League and hence qualified to play in the Northern Premier Division - Division One North. After a season of consolidation when they finished fifth they were promoted to the Northern Premier Division in the summer when they emerged victorious from the play offs. They currently sit 6th in this highly competitive division and they are clearly a club on the up and up.

Regular readers will know that I lived in Boston Lincolnshire for 17 years between 1991 and 2008 before moving back to Scotland. During this time I was a regular patron of Boston United and did not miss many of their home games at York Street. For a short time Spennymoor were in the same league as the Pilgrims. I reckon I saw Spennymoor twice in this era. In the Unibond League fixture in Feb 1996 Boston United cuffed the men from County Durham 4-1. The current Moors manager Jason Ainsley was wearing number 7 for The Moors that day. The programme notes that Jason had just re-signed for Spennymoor after spells with Hartlepool and in club football in Australia. Inevitably, Boston United goalscoring legend Chris Cook was on the scoresheet for the Pilgrims that afternoon.

Boston v Moors in 1996: tackling from behind celebrated on the programme cover

I must have missed the visit of the Moors the following season but I saw Spennymoor beat Boston United 3-1 at York Street in March 1998.

Boston v Moors in 1998: Chris Cook doing the hokey cokey on the programme cover

In season 1998-99 the Pilgrims and the Moors went their separate ways and as far as I know have not met since 1998. Hence on Saturday the 1st October I will be seeing Spennymoor play for the third time and it will be my first visit to their Brewery Field Ground. Any team that plays at a venue with the word brewery in the name is ok with me. Chorley will start as slight favourites but Spennymoor are an ambitious upwardly mobile team and it will be a fascinating stop on the Road to Wembley from Scotland.

Over the next couple of days I will be in touch with Spennymoor to find out what their links are with Scotland. Keep reading!