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Brackley back from the brink and aiming for another FA Cup shock | Paul Doyle

Last season Brackley escaped relegation from the Conference North on the final day of the season – now, if they can beat Blackpool, they will be in the FA Cup third roundAs they prepared for Saturday’s FA Cup second round tie at Blackpool, the players and staff of Brackley Town held a quiz in their hotel , just as they had done before their match at Gillingham in the previous round. Here is a question that was not asked on either occasion: which club had to wait until the final minute of last season to avoid relegation from the sixth tier of English football but are now on the verge of joining the elite in the third round of the...

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FA Cup retains its charm in more modest surroundings | Sean Ingle

For clubs lower down the league pyramid, the FA Cup can still provide the magical feeling of football for football’s sakeWhat value does a lower-league football club provide to a small town? It was something to mull over on Saturday morning during a scenic ramble from Merstham train station to the town’s football ground for the club’s first round FA Cup tie against Oxford United. The previous day I had spoken to Richard Baxter, the club’s secretary, who happens to be my sister-in-law’s father. “Many people who live in the town still don’t know where the club is,” he sighed. The size of the 1,920 crowd, 10 times the normal gate, suggested quite a few had decided their local side...

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FA Cup first round: the minnows’ stories, from Westfields to Merstham

Supporters, media and staff from six of the clubs looking to cause upsets this weekend tell the inside story of their journeys into the national spotlightWhen we founded Westfields 50 years ago, reaching the first round proper of the FA Cup would have been nothing more than a wild dream. Getting to this stage has been a memorable journey, starting on 6 August in the extra preliminary round against Stourport Swifts. We needed a last-minute penalty to win 4-3 and that slender win has mushroomed into something very special. The logistics and arrangements put in place this week before our tie with Curzon Ashton are all new for us as a club. There is an enormous amount of work to...

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