FA Cup Non-League Club: Time to take on the Cherries

FA Cup / Gary Boswell / 28 November 2008 / Leave a Comment

Can the heroes of the last round put themselves in the hat for potential dream ties against Premier League opposition? Anything is possible, says The Boz as he rises to his Betfair FA CUP challenge.

Those noble boys from Betfair have challenged The Boz to tip a level stakes profit in every round of this season's FA Cup. Promises of prizes for my favourite charity in the event of success. The only proviso is that I stick to The Boz maxim of opposing favourites and - whilst they remain in the competition - championing my boys from the world of non-league football. No problem. I'd have done that anyway!

With two rounds already successfully under my belt, I've studied long and hard this week and come to the conclusion that all the remaining Non-League teams are in with a chance. League form can be tossed out of the window and, sure enough, both Blyth Spartans and Curzon Ashton proved me right by going an astonishing three goals up against high-flying League opposition.

Shrewsbury's Paul Simpson wasn't the only one scratching his head and wondering how come his League Two play-off contenders were being outplayed by the Blue Square North strugglers under the canny supervision of part-time school caretaker Harry Dunn.

The moustachioed maestro has been at Spartans for many a moon and is greatly revered in the non-league world for his commitment and all round nous. No pretensions of Premiership grandeur for Harry. Simple hard work and a basic understanding of motivation. No little eye for burgeoning young talent either as personified in striker Shaun Reay who took his two goals with cool aplomb.

For me, in looking to narrow down to those fixtures where the shock is most likely to happen, I cast around for league teams full of ex-non-league players. This often levels the playing field on the day and is not reflected in the mandatory long pricing given to the supposed no-hope non-league teams.

Spartans are long priced again in Round Two. As big as [7.0] to win at Dean Court where AFC Bournemouth - nowhere near as strong an opponent as the Shrews - are a miniscule [1.56] to prevail. The Cherries are managed by old non-league warhorse Jimmy Quinn and I note with relish that Shwan Jalal keeps goal for them. He's a non-leaguey too who was always on the Boz dodgepot list during his loan spell at Woking.

Spartans have the supposed away disadvantage and may approach the game with a defensive line-up designed to take the game back to Croft Park and, with that in mind, The Boz leads his Round Two strategy with a Lay on the Cherries.

If the Spartans Round One performance was heroic, the antics of Gary Lowe's Curzon Ashton in beating Exeter City was nothing short of a sensation. The Unibond North minnows really did achieve a result as big as that of Chasetown against Port Vale last season and James Ogoo's goal was the sort of strike that gives him a real chance of winning the FA Cup Goal of the Season award.

To get themselves in the hat for that potential dream tie against their neighbours at Old Trafford, they face a second round match against Mark Yates' non-league Kidderminster Harriers who are as short as [1.43] to win. A whopping [9.0] is available on Curzon who, like Blyth, are facing lesser opposition than in the last round. It is difficult therefore to argue that they can't do it on the basis of current form and easy to surmise that all things are possible simply because this is the FA Cup.

I'm guided by the prices as ever. I know Kidderminster as a team capable of losing to anybody on any given day and thus [1.44] is a price that screams out to be layed. And I will gladly do so!

I wish Droylsden, Eastwood, Fleetwood, Forest Green, Alfreton and Kettering well and won't be surprised to see at least one of them prevail despite all having the sort of tough opposition that discourages me from betting on my narrow down list.

I'm also slavering at the prospect of watching Histon take on the mighty Leeds United live on ITV on Sunday. [6.0] is an enormous price on a side who are without doubt the strongest non-league has to offer at the moment and who vanquished opposition in the last round not far from Leeds' strength. Again, all things are possible and I expect the 32,000 strong Elland Road army to get a bit of a wake-up call against the talents of Jack Midson and Antonio Murray in the hothouse of the Glassworld Stadium.

A braveheart encounter is also live on Setanta on Friday night as Barrow host Brentford. The Bluebirds let me down last week and manager Dave Bayliss was furious that players had allowed heads to be turned towards this game instead of concentrating on seeing off Weymouth. I shall be there to support them again and, having form studied the Bees in the last round against Havant, I give the Bluebirds a reasonable chance as long as goalkeeper Tim Deasy - who is prone to moments of madness - has one of his more solid games.

Line-ups will be worth checking before you punt heavy as there is talk of on-loan Leeds goalkeeper Alan Martin being fit again but [4.2] is attractive enough whoever plays for me to include them as my third best bet of the weekend.

The Boz's recommended bets for ensuring his level stakes profit in the Betfair FA Cup challenge:

1pt Back on BARROW at [4.2] or greater against Brentford
2.5 pt Lay on KIDDERMINSTER at [1.44] or less against Curzon Ashton
2.2pt Lay on AFC BOURNEMOUTH at [1.56] or less against Blyth Spartans