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Saturday comes and it's the F.A Trophy something we thought our club had left behind for good back in 2009, a cup competition us Gulls fans have a particularly love hate relationship with, in 2008 we enjoyed a day out at Wembley in the final which was scant consolation after losing the promotion play-off semi-finals, ending up runners-up losing 1.0 to Ebbsfleet in the final, many blamed failure to gain promotion back to the football league at the first attempt on our run to the Trophy final.

Our first round hosts Bishops Stortford who play at the ProKit Stadium, Dunmow Road, Bishops Stortford, sat nav post code CM23 5RG ground capacity 4,525 (525 seated) formed in 1874, started out life in the Stansted and district league, Bishops Stortford joined the Isthmian League in 1971 and would finish as Division one champions in 1980 and 1993. At the end of season 2003-4 the top twelve Ryman Premier league clubs were placed in the, then newly formed Conference South, an 11th place finish that season would see Bishops Stortford promoted to the sixth tier of English football, they have stayed at that level ever since, although 2011 saw them briefly transferred into the conference North (cant find much info on that) Bishops Stortford won the F.A Amateur cup 1974 and were F.A Trophy winners 1981.

Bishop Stortford also have a proud record of appearing in the F.A Cup (1970-2-5) (1981-2-4-5-6) (2003-6) their best ever performance came in 1982 making the 3 round.

Bishops Stortford currently sat 15th in the conference South , last time out saw The Blues' fall to a 2.3 defeat at home to Bromley, they lined up as follows;

D Gregory
C Alexander
J Herd
F Merrifield
J Tabiri
P Anderson
S Sellears
S McCall
M Suarez
D Simmonds (J Walker 76)
R Auger.

Their current form in competitive games is; D-L-D-L-W-L

From a Torquay point of view, Saturday will see Aaron Downes suspended, Durrell Berry likely not to feature as he missed the Halifax game injured, and Duane Ofori-Acheampong an injury doubt after limping off Tuesday night. The F.A Trophy is not going create a lot of interest or excitement amongst our support, many of our fans would like to see our club prioritise promotion, however Colchester, Wycombe, York and Cambridge have all shown that winning promotion and the F.A Trophy in the same season is possible, should our club take this seriously, well winning games is a great habit to have, results breed confidence, which in turn breeds itself, so for me, yes. Also this article maybe an indicator that Chris Hargreaves will play a relatively strong side. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30410325

Last time out saw us gain a confidence boosting 2.1 home win against Halifax which saw us line up as follows;

01 Rice
22 McQuilkin (Harding - 84' )
05 Pearce
21 MacDonald
25 Ives
07 Briscoe (Chapell - 87' )
08 Young
16 Richards
10 Ajala
09 Bowman
24 Ofori-Acheampong (Yeoman - 72' )

Our current form reads; D-L-W-D-L-W

Parking advice taken from their O/S...http://www.bsfc.co.uk/the-stadium/

Car Parking

Away team coach space and space for 150 cars on site plus additional facilities (£1). Visiting supporters coaches should book space in advance; 01279 306456. The car park is often full before the start of home games and early arrival is recommended.

Taxis: The ground is about 20 minutes walk from the town centre and railway station. There is a taxi rank at Bishop’s Stortford rail station and ‘Associated Taxis’ number is 01279 655666.

I know their will not be great interest in this game, however why not have ago and predict our starting line for a bit of fun, I'll do mine later when I have time.

Would like us to rest a few for this and line up something like

Seabright

Tonge Odofin Pearce Cruise

Cameron Harding McQuilken Ajala

Yeoman Benyon

Would too like to see us rest a couple of players with the busy Christmas scheduled, plus the 6 games in 19 days ( or something along those line) we've played already...

Having said that with no FA cup run, Trophy is next best thing....

I hope we win but the league must be a priority. That Ebbsfleet final was awful, talk about an anti climax to the season. Look out for the tyre marks on the roof of the stands because of the close proximity of the airport.

Anyone know if there's going to be live commentary for this? Commentators on Tuesday said they were not yet sure if they would be able to broadcast from Bishop's Stortford. I'd hate to get up on a Saturday morning for no reason. I'm lazy like that.

Seabright and Odofin need experience and that comes through games, this match to me would perfect for them, and Briscoe still a tad short of match fitness should play, I think we might see the team line up something like this;

Seabright

McQuilkin
MacDonald
Odofin
Cruise

Chapell
Richards
Harding
Ajala

Briscoe
Yoeman

Anyone else going to have guess, just a bit fun, have a go. I'll trawl through and see who gets the closest, a prize of absolutely nothing goes to the winner.

Seabright

Tonge
Mc Donald
Pearce
Cruise

Cameron
Harding
Young
Ives

Briscoe
Yeoman

subs Odofin Berry (if fit) Chappell Rice Richards Ajala Bowman

Thought Tonge injured and Cruise ill, well that's how it was earlier in the week.

If anyone is planning on a drink before the game, your only options really are the clubhouse at the ground or the Nags Head (about 10mins walk away in the direction of town down Dunmow Road). Quite a nice pub to be fair. There are plenty of decent places for food and drink in the town centre if you are heading via there, but bear in mind its a good 20-25mins walk uphill.

Wouldn't worry too much about car parking - it only really gets manic if there is 1000+ on the gate (which I doubt there will be!). If you are too stingy to pay the couple of quid for a parking space, there isn't any street parking in the immediate vicinity but some can be found down Parsonage Lane (if you are coming off the M11, head past the turning for the ground, then take a right at the next roundabout and park anywhere you can see).

I'd imagine it won't be segregated, in which case best place for fans to congregate will be in the end terraces (last time I went to a segregated match the away fans got the "Town" end of the ground rather than the "Airport" end). Never actually stood on it myself, but have heard the Stortford fans make a decent racket so acoustics are good. If you need to sit, make sure you arrive fairly early and go in the Main Stand. Don't bother going in the small stand on the opposite side - its too low and set far back from the pitch so you're view will be awful.

As you might have guessed, I'd been waiting all my life to write an intro for this game!

Its either gotta be a strong side if we really want to win for sake of momentum, or weak as possible to rest players and go out of fairly pointless cup.

If they draw is it replay or extra time?

gurneygibbs23 wrote:Its either gotta be a strong side if we really want to win for sake of momentum, or weak as possible to rest players and go out of fairly pointless cup.

If they draw is it replay or extra time?

A replay on Tuesday night.

See Suarez is playing for them-good job Labadie no longer plays for us,it would have been a blood bath!

njgull wrote:Anyone know if there's going to be live commentary for this? Commentators on Tuesday said they were not yet sure if they would be able to broadcast from Bishop's Stortford. I'd hate to get up on a Saturday morning for no reason. I'm lazy like that.

As far as I know there is a planned commentary tomorrow.

Far too lazy to look for myself, but does anyone know what sort of prize money there is available for progressing throughout the competition, if any?

Curiosity had got the better of me and a quick search of the FA site has has thrown up the answer!! 50k for the winners of this comp and obviously a Wembley trip too which would presumeably mean a small share of the gate receipts as well!! A sizeable amount for a club without a pot to piss in....