Road to Wembley 2010/11 (1st Round)

Sometimes you just get lucky in the games you pick and follow all the way through the rounds. A lucky fairy tale was what I was hoping for to follow when I picked Elmore vs Hamworthy way back in August. Now November, the plucky bunch of Swindon Supermarine had made it to the 1st Round Proper for the 1st time in their history and were picking up some much needed funds after nearly falling into liquidation during the summer. Their opponents were from the Conference North in Eastwood Town.

  (Eastwood – maybe he hasn’t been to the small town in Nottinghamshire clearly named after him)

Eastwood Town had not really started too well in their Conference North season and were languishing 17th out of 21 with their heads looking clearly behind them at a possible relegation battle. Away from the league, Eastwood Town had dispatched of some decent teams such as Stafford Rangers, Matlock Town and Stalybridge Celtic before meeting Swindon’s 2nd team in the 1st Round.

(Ben Wells makes it Marine 2-0 Eastwood and its dreamland time)

As you can see from the picture above Supermarine really enjoyed their time in front of a bumper crowd as the produced a decent sized shock by dispatching of Eastwood Town by 2 goals to 1. After a 15th minute opener from Ashan Holgate, Ben Wells made it 2-0 and looked good and comfortable at half-time. Yet Eastwood pulled a goal back straight after half-time from Lee Stevenson and then they battered their hosts, but they could not find a way through, just. Supermarine are now in the 2nd Round for their first time! They have a tough task as they travel to Essex to take on Colchester Utd. 4 leagues higher….

ROAD TO WEMBLEY 2010/2011:

EXTRA PRELIMINARY ROUND: Elmore 1-5 Hamworthy Utd (Horsdon Park, Att: 247)

PRELIMINARY ROUND: Hamworthy Utd 2-2 Sherborne Town (County Ground, Att: 122)

PRELIMINARY ROUND Replay: Sherborne Town 3–0 Hamworthy Utd (Raleigh Grove, Att: 154)

1ST QUALIFYING ROUND: Wimborne Town 1-3 Sherborne Town (The Cuthbury, Att: 226)

2ND QUALIFYING ROUND: Sherborne Town 1-2 Hungerford Town (Raleigh Grove, Att: 138)

3RD QUALIFYING ROUND: Swindon Supermarine 4-0 Hungerford Town (Webb’s Wood Stadium, Att: 365)

4TH QUALIFYING ROUND: Swindon Supermarine 0-0 Bath City (Webb’s Wood Stadium, Att: 551)

4TH QUALIFYING ROUND Replay: Bath City 3-4 Swindon Supermarine (Twerton Park, Att: 665)

1ST ROUND: Swindon Supermarine 2-1 Eastwood Town (Webb’s Wood Stadium, Att: 1,159)