Monday (14th October) was double draw day as the next rounds of the FA Trophy and FA Vase were made following fixtures on Saturday that saw Thatcham Town, Ascot United, Binfield in the hat as well as Windsor for the first time this season.
You wouldn’t have known it was draw day though if you’d been to any of the games on Saturday and absentmindedly wondered when the draw would take place.
Nothing from the Football Association. No post on the website. Nothing on social media (and let me tell you, it’s really easy to post on social media).
Some context, when I post these draws on Football in Berkshire after they are published, our page views on the site are three times higher than a normal day.
The FA had a unique opportunity to make a big deal of the draw on Monday afternoon. I am sure the competition sponsors Buildbase wouldn’t have minded the exposure but as it was, all we got was a guess at the time of release and the usual PDF hidden on the FA website.
It really would not take much to just let people know what was going on but as it is, it takes until TalkSport2 get hold of the draws in the later rounds that things are done properly.
These are the second and third most important competitions that FA run, it’d be nice if they showed them even just a little bit of love for the benefit of all the non league clubs that compete.
The latest FA Trophy and FA Vase draws are available here.
These notes were first published as part of Football in Berkshire’s programme notes sent to Berkshire programme editors. If you would like to get the notes weekly for your club, please email editor@footballinbracknell.co.uk
