Dunston UTS v Penrith - the winners will host Skelmersdale in the next round

I was caught unawares yesterday when I discovered that the draw for the first qualifying round was made earlier than usual. I have found out that the winners of the Dunston UTS v Penrith will play Skelmersdale at home in the next round on Saturday the 3rd September. This is good news for me as it means that The Road to Wembley from Scotland will allow me to spend a bit more time in the far north of England before the journey takes me much further south. I will be making a return visit to either the UTS Stadium in Gateshead or to the scenic Frenchfields Stadium in Penrith in early September.

Skelmersdale will provide stern opposition for either Dunston or Penrith as they play in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. The Northern Prem is significantly higher in the football pyramid than the Northern League where Dunston and Penrith ply their trade.

The Skelmersdale team pose for a team photo prior to the start of season 2016-17

In due course I will be getting in touch with Skemersdale FC to explore their Scottish links - talking of which ... I was back in touch with Ken Fitzpatrick the website editor and photographer from Dunston UTS asking if he had unearthed any more links between Dunston UTS and Bella Caledonia. Ken, who has been very generous with his help for this blog, told me that he can't think of much more but that he does play the bagpipes!

Dunston website editor Ken Fitzpatrick playing the bagpipes at Bannockburn

Ken sent me a link to his flickr page showing him playing the pipes in many locations including Bannockburn. The battle of Bannockburn was a famous victory for the Scots over the English in 1314 in the First War of Scottish Independence. Much blood was spilled in pursuit of a famous victory. Hopefully no blood will be spilled on Saturday when Dunston UTS play Penrith but I wonder which team will record a famous victory to see them march on to do battle with Skelmersdale?

Diving in Boldon and in Edinburgh ... a tenuous but interesting link between Dunston UTS and Scotland

Only five days to go until the big game. On Saturday Dunston UTS will play Penrith at home in the FA Cup Preliminary Round and I will be there as this is my next stop on the 'Road to Wembley from Scotland.

The two teams have met once before in the FA Cup. They were drawn to play each other in 1991 and the first match ended 2-2. The replay must have been some game as it finished 6-6. In that era there were no penalty kick shoot-outs so the tie went to a second replay and Dunston (then known as Dunston Federation Brewery) won 2-1. A total of 19 goals scored in the tie! I am hoping to see some of that goal action on Saturday.

At the weekend both teams were in Northern League action in the lead up to the big game and both teams suffered disappointments. Penrith lost 0-2 at home against Bishop Auckland.

The end of the match on Saturday and Penrith are beaten by Bishop Auckland

Dunston drew 2-2 away to Jarrow Roofing in Boldon and reading the match report on the Dunston UTS web site it appears as if it was a game they should have won. Leading 2-1 with time running out it appears that they were cheated out of a useful away win by a dive from the Jarrow player. The web site match reporter is understandably very careful with the words he uses describing the incident as follows: 'As the game entered the 90th minute, Gilhespy tangled with Chow on the edge of the box, Chow dived to the ground and the referee awarded a free kick to Jarrow.' The report concludes by saying that 'Dunston again gave away a late goal as Chow bought a free kick on the edge of the box'. I can fully understand why the report is phrased this way but reading between the lines I think that Dunston are annoyed at the gamesmanship of the Jarrow player ... now time for a rant!

Up here in chilly Jocko-Land diving has also been the hot topic of the week (hence I am making this tenuous but interesting link between Dunston UTS and Scotland). Just over a week ago I was at Tynecastle to see my beloved Hearts take on Celtic.  In the 36th minute Hearts were awarded a penalty when Jamie Walker was 'felled' in the box. I was sitting behind the goal at the other end of the pitch and it looked for all the world like a stick-on penalty. Jamie certainly made it look convincing. TV pictures showed that he was not fouled and that Walker dived. He explained: 'I felt contact and I went down'. Poor show Jamie on two counts: (i) he could not have felt contact as there was no contact and (ii) no player should want to 'go down' with the ball at his feet - tying to 'win' a penalty in this manner is a horrible blemish on the modern version of the beautiful game.

.. and the Judges marks are 5.8, 5.9, 5.8, 5.7 and 6.0

Worse was to follow. The SFA, quite rightly,  retrospectively handed Walker a 2 match ban for simulation last Monday. My beloved Hearts unfortunately chose to appeal knowing that the appeal would not be heard until Thursday. Hearts had an important league cup tie against St Johnstone on Wednesday and Walker was hence eligible to play. Ironically he scored a penalty for my beloved Hearts in that match. This whole incident looks bad and my beloved Hearts have not come out of this with any credit. On Thursday the appeal was dismissed and the two game ban now applies. The point of this rant is that football clubs should be careful what messages they are sending out - as actions such as the appeal are absorbed by supporters who believe that their football club will always act in an honourable manner. I was at Pittodrie on Saturday to watch Hearts play Aberdeen and the consensus among most of the Hearts support was that somehow the club had been shafted by the SFA. They chanted 'fuck the SFA, fuck the SFA, fuck the SFA, fuck the SFA, fuck the SFA, fuck the SFA, fuck the SFA' continuously for 10 minutes in the first half. I am a dedicated and devoted Hearts fan but I found this embarrassing. My beloved Hearts have done great work changing the image of the club over the last few years emphasising the organisation as a family friendly club proud of their history and their community focus. Hopefully the ill judged stance of defending the indefensible is now behind us and is not repeated and it would be good if Jamie Walker, who is a very talented young footballer, changes his ways and tries to stay on his feet in future. There is no place for diving in football - be it in the Northern League in Boldon or the SPFL at Tynecastle. Rant over.

Hopefully the only diving I will see on Saturday is diving headers flashing goalwards. I am feeling a real sense of anticipation regarding the game between Dunston UTS and Penrith on Saturday. Even more so now as I will be joined at the match by my son Brian who will be travelling with me  from Midlothian to the game. Brian is now 31 but I just love spending time with him. I spoke with a very old friend Alan McCusker Thompson last week and always a man for good advice and memorable soundbytes Alan said "take your time and enjoy your time. It is beyond riches". Nice one Al

The UTS Stadium on Saturday here I come ... cannae wait.

Dunston's Scottish Links emerging! Local boy Chris Swailes goes from Boston United to Scotland (via everywhere!) and eventually arrives at his home club

As regular readers will know, the unique feature of this particular Road to Wembley is that it is The Road to Wembley from Scotland. Hence I am looking for Scottish Links involving the clubs I will be watching along the road. Yesterday I made contact with the good people at Dunston UTS who will be hosting the next match that I will be watching - the FA Cup Preliminary Round tie against Penrith on Saturday week. I asked them if they have any Scottish links. They told me that local Gateshead man Chris Swailes who played for them from 2011 to 2014 while in his forties, had a connection with Hamilton Academicals.

Chris Swailes proudly sporting the Dunston UTS colours

I first came across Chris in October 1991 when the family moved to Boston in Lincolnshire. Chris was the regular centre half for Boston United and on many occasions I saw him strutting his stuff as an elegant young ball playing defender during season 1991-92. In total in his spell at York Street he made 30 appearances for the Pilgrims and scored one goal.  On the 15th January 1992 Boston United played Slough Town in a Conference fixture and Chris was featured as the Pilgrim in Profile in the match programme

Chris Swailes a Pilgrim with Scottish connections

It is fascinating to note that Chris' favourite player was the Glaswegian Paddy Connelly then plying his trade in the SPL for Dundee United. An early sign that Chris had an affinity for Bella Caledonia. They do say that Geordies are really only Scotsmen with their brains bashed out! I don't suppose that Chris ever managed to achieve his ambition of becoming a millionaire.

From Boston United Chris moved on to play league football for Doncaster Rovers, Ipswich Town, Bury, Rotherham and Oldham Athletic. In 2007, in what I suspect must have been the realisation of a lifelong dream, Chris crossed the border and signed for Hamilton to play his football in Bonny Scotland. He served the Accies with distinction and in total made 52 appearance and scored 10 goals for the men from New Douglas Park over the next 2 seasons.

After leaving the Accies Chris went on to play for Gateshead and Blyth Spartans and finally signed for Dunston UTS in 2011 at the age of 40. Chris represented Dunston for 3 seasons playing 98 games and scoring 15 goals. In this three year spell at the UTS Stadium he also picked up an FA Vase winners medal. However our man Swailes was not done with Scotland yet.

In January 2015 he left the UTS Stadium to rejoin Hamilton Accies, this time as Assistant Manager to Martin Canning. Chris was only at New Douglas Park a few months but was instrumental in securing a 7th place finish for the Accies in the SPL in season 2014-15.

Chris returned to the North East to resume his playing career signing for Morpeth Town at the age of 44. Despite his almost pensioner status he amazingly helped Morpeth win the FA Vase less than three months ago when Morpeth beat Hereford 4-1 at Wembley. Chris scored Morpeth's first goal in the final. At the age of 45 one of Dunston UTS's favourite sons Chris Swailes is still playing. I raise a glass of whisky to a Geordie with strong Scottish connections.

Its going to be Dinky-Do in Dunston: Gateshead will be Great when Penrith visit on the 20th August

Last night Dunston UTS beat Barnoldswick Town 4-0 in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round replay at the UTS Stadium in Gateshead. Picture below is taken from the excellent Dunston UTS web site.

This means that my next match on the Road to Wembley from Scotland will be Dunston UTS v Penrith. The UTS Stadium will host this tie on Saturday 20th August. Looking forward to it already!

Tonight will it be Delight in Dunston or a Barney in Barnoldswick? Penrith await the winners!

Tonight the UTS Stadium in Gateshead will host the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round replay between Dunston UTS and Barnoldswick Town. The winners will play Penrith at home in the next round and this will be my next stop on the Road to Wembley from Scotland.

 

The neat and compact UTS Stadium in Gateshead

I have been in touch with Barnoldswick Town about possible Scottish links between their club and Bonny Scotland and they have let me know that their manager Stewart Airdrie is a Yorkshire Scot! Sounds intriguing.

 

Stewart Airdrie: Manager of Barnoldswick and a Yorkshire Scot

I may be back on twitter looking for more information about Stewart tomorrow depending on the result tonight. Alternatively I might be chasing up information about the links between Dunston UTS and Bella Caledonia. Only one of these teams will still be in the competition at 10.30pm tonight. That is the beauty and indeed the romance of the FA Cup. Good luck to both teams tonight. Whoever wins will have their work cut out against Penrith.

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!

Penrith v Sunderland RCA on Saturday - the big day has almost arrived to start my journey

The big day has finally arrived – almost.

On Saturday I start my Road to Wembley from Scotland. Just to reiterate:

The idea is quite simple. Once the draw for the Extra Preliminary round of the FA Cup is made I will establish which of these ties will be staged closest to the Scotland / England border. I will attend that match and I will then follow the winner into the Preliminary round. The winners of that match will then be followed into the first qualifying round ... and so on ... and so on - until I end up at the FA Cup final next May. Had I been 'on the road' in season 15-16 I would have started at Penrith v Jarrow Roofing in August 2015 and ended up watching Manchester United beat Crystal Palace last month. For each match I will be trying to find a Scottish link and reporting not just on the match but the circumstances surrounding the tie.

The tie in question in the Extra Preliminary Round is Penrith v Sunderland Ryhope Community Association. Penrith have a fab link to Scotland in that their Physio Susan Pollock is Scottish. Sunderland RCA have a number of Scots links including links with great Scots Sunderland players of the 60s. The main link is that the grandson, Ross McNab, of the legendary Scots half back Jim McNab currently plays for Sunderland RCA.

Both teams have completed impressive pre-season campaigns and are in good form. In their final matches Penrith put a good show at their Frenchfields Stadium ground against a strong Carlisle side earlier this week going down 0-3. Sunderland RCA’s last pre-season game was a 3-1 victory against Pickering. Pics from both matches are shown below courtesy of John France and the Sunderland RCA web site respectively.

 

Penrith and Carlisle doing battle at the Frenchfields 

Kevin Gordon of Sunderland RCA smiling as he goes past a Pickering defender

Now the real action begins and I will be there for my first stop on the Road to Wembley from Scotland. The first competitive match in season 2016-17 for both sides is the FA Cup tie in Penrith this Saturday – the 6^th August. I am so looking forward to it and hoping that Ross McNab is picked to play for SRCA. Also looking forward to seeing Susan Pollock wield the Scottish magic sponge when treating injured Penrith players – hopefully not too many will need the Caledonian treatment.

Anorak note: Having tested my ‘quality of the experience’ categories in Annan a fortnight ago I am combining the ‘quality of play’ and ‘entertainment’ categories into simply ‘entertainment value’ and introducing a new category ‘Scottishness’. It is after all The Road to Wembley from Scotland !