Carlisle City head to first FA Cup match in 42 years

Prost International sponsors Carlisle City manager James Nichols

Northern League Division 1 side Carlisle City head to West Auckland this Saturday to do something they have not done in 42 years; play in the FA Cup.

The Cumbrian side won Division 2 on a dramatic final day last May, with the players huddled round cell phones waiting for confirmation of Heaton Stannington’s result. The Stan drew and City were promoted as Division 2 Champions despite trailing by 17 points at one stage.

The good news is that Stan were also promoted and also qualified for the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round where they were rewarded with a home draw against Pickering Town. The winners will be at home to Northallerton or North Ferriby.

City however must travel and more-so travel to one of the Northern League’s most interesting clubs, West Auckland Town. They won one of the world’s first international footballing competitions, the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, not once but twice in 1909 and 1911.

Lipton was a football visionary who foresaw the attraction of international football competition. He invited the FAs of England, Italy, Germany and Switzerland to send a side to an inaugural competition.

The latter three agreed but the English FA refused to send a club. The Italians set a Turin XI drawn from clubs such as Torino and Juventus, Germany sent Stuttgarter Sportfreunde and the Swiss FA nominated Winterthur.

Here the story gets cloudier.

Deprived of an official participant from the FA, Lipton invited West Auckland FC, an amateur side made up of coal miners. The reason is still unknown although local folklore in West Auckland itself was that the FA intended to send Woolwich Arsenal, forerunners of Arsenal FC but before they moved to their current North London home, but West Auckland were invited instead as they shared the same initials.

The Durham club won the tournament and defended it two years later, beating Juventus 6-1 in doing so. As successive winners, they retained the trophy.

Tyne Tees Television produced a film starring the late Dennis Waterman about the side.

Titled The World Cup: A Captain’s Tale, it also starred Nigel Hawthorne (Yes Minister’s Sir Humphrey Appleby) and Tim Healy (Auf Wiedersehn Pet).

Now called West Auckland Town, they are a staple of the top half of Division 1, finishing 6th last season.

The club is acquainted with Wembley Stadium. In 2011/12 and 2013/14, they twice reached the FA Vase final, held at Wembley Stadium. In 2012 they lost 2–0 to Dunston UTS and two years later, were runners-up again losing 1–0 to Sholing.

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2014 FA Vase Final – Sholing 1 : 0 West Auckland Town

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However, as of kick off, they find themselves looking up at Carlisle City in the Division 1 table, trailing by three points.

The Durham club started off with a decent draw at promoted side Heaton Stannington but lost 1-4 at home to Guisborough Town in midweek.

City also started with a draw at home to Sunderland RCA in their first match in the upper division. They then recorded their first win at Thornaby to move to 6th place with four points.

James Nichols is the City manager. He told us:

“Obviously we are delighted with the unbeaten start in the league but the FA Cup has generated an incredible thrill around the dressing room and club.

“It’s our first game in 42 years in the world’s most storied cup tournament.

“It’s a real achievement to get the club back in to this competition after so many years away.

“Although West Auckland are in our division, we have never played them before so there’s still that newness and uniqueness about visiting their ground.

“We are looking forward to it immensely but come Saturday, I hope my lads will be focused on the match rather than the occasion.”

The match kicks off at 3pm at West Auckland’s Wanted Stadium, on the Darlington Road. The X21 runs from Newcastle and the 84 and 85 from Bishop Auckland. If your eyes need testing and you accidentally find yourself at Barnard Castle, the 6 runs from there.

The winners will have the reward of a home tie against Goole or Consett on August 20.

416 clubs are playing in this Extra Preliminary Round, with the losers collecting £375 and the winners £1125. The 208 winners will be joined by 64 new clubs in the Preliminary Round.

Four further qualifying rounds follow before the First Round Proper where the League clubs enter on November 5.

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