All three of Berkshire’s competitors in the weekend’s FA Trophy First Qualifying Round ties have had a taste of Wembley Stadium.
Thatcham Town and most recently Ascot United won the FA Vase under the arch of the national stadium while Binfield were narrowly beaten on the hallowed turf by Warrington Rylands.
Prior to Thatcham’s win in 2018 – “He scores, he always scores!” – the only Royal County sides to reach a Wembley final were Reading FC (a 1988 Full Members’ Cup win over Luton Town) and Slough Town (a 1972/73 FA Amateur Cup Final defeat to Walton & Hersham)*.
Even in the FA Vase, it took 40 years for a team from Berkshire to make the Final let alone win it. And no Berkshire team has ever bothered the last two of the FA Trophy. That, however, is a little more understandable as until 2008 the competition was only open to teams in the top two tiers of non-league football.
Anyway, with the historical context done, all three of Ascot United, Binfield and Thatcham Town are in FA Trophy First Qualifying Round action at the weekend and anything could happen.
The Yellas and the Kingfishers have already won Preliminary Round fixtures while Binfield were given a bye. The Moles have faced their opponents Horndean this season in the league and suffered a 4-0 defeat.
Binfield and Thatcham (they host Evesham United) will be underdogs going into their games based on early league positions, while Ascot at home to Merstham is arguably too close to call.
The Yellas fixture is on Friday night at the Racecourse Ground (ko 7:45pm) but Ascot will be without defender and FA Vase hero Harry Tucker who has departed the club. He follows in the footsteps of Alfie Grant who has moved back to Reading City.
Ascot have however added the services of attacker Jamal Branker who came through Southampton’s youth system and was most recently with North Leigh and Wantage Town.
Both Thatcham and Binfield’s games take place on Saturday (3pm), and for all three sides, it’s winner takes all on the day. There are no replays in the FA Trophy and no extra time. When a match is drawn after 90 minutes the game goes straight to penalties.
2024/25 FA Trophy First Round Qualifying for Berkshire clubs
- Horndean v Binfield
- Ascot United v Merstham (Friday, 7:45pm)
- Thatcham Town v Evesham United
*We absolutely expect to be corrected on this.
