As thorough visitors to this site will know, well known singer songwriter Dylan Ross contributed lyrics to make our own official song.

Despite some basic music knowledge and access to super intelligent software, some percussion instruments and an Ocarina, extreme lack of talent has meant we’ve never got round to putting any music to it. And neither has anyone else. But Dylan now has! You’ll find the link on our ‘Official Song’ page but it’s also here on Dylan’s youtube channel.

In pure realfacup style, Dylan says he’s properly recorded the song “in response to the glut of football songs doing the rounds thanks to the FA’s decision not to have an official song this time around”. He, like us, stared whistfully skywards and pondered what Keith Allen would be doing with himself this summer …

Enjoy. And … stop press … Dylan has been linked up on Square Football

And, as we’re going a bit Real World Cup for the summer, why not also head over to Square Football for more unoffical World Cup song action. If you haven’t already.

You would have thought with seven goals to keep us occupied this game would have been a cracker. Some very good goals were scored, well, the executions were good but the defending left a little to be desired and the general play was somewhat bitty and more even than the scoreline suggests.

However, before all that we had a task. It was 6:30pm ish and we had about 70 minutes to visit the famous four pubs of Brentford, one at each corner of the ground. First up, the South West corner. The Griffin. All four realfacupsters were present and the first post-work beer slipped down effortlessly. Nice boozer, very tidy, more of a locals chill pub than a football boozer. Well kept booze too, in fact the nicest Pride I’ve had in a while.

A mere ten minutes later and on our way to pub two some charity chuggers asked for our pennies. The fella chugger said the lady chugger would kiss for a quid. We declined. Next pub, the Princess Royal, was less salubrious and devoid of tables and chairs but replete with more hardy locals (replica shirted), vibrating floor (no idea why), cockle basket man (excellent) and toilet man, urinal-side with trousers and pants round ankles (not a good look). The chuggers entered but no kisses were offered in here.

Third pub was the New Inn, another nice pub but somewhere between the Griffin and Princess Royal in style, had a big screen or two dotted around but was a cosy old pub. We flicked through a heavily thumbed copy of Frank McAvennie’s autobiography on the dresser (yes, the dresser) as we all made the unwise choice of Directors. Bit much for a swift pint but swift it was.

It was now pushing 7:40 so we cheated with a half in the Royal Oak, which was probably wise given the dreadful beer choice and the lurking rozzers. Grotty boozer

We got in just as the match was kicking off. In the first few minutes, Gateshead settled well and forced two corners, one after a Daryl Clare shot that was tipped away unconvincingly by the Bees ‘keeper Lewis Price. For the first half an hour, very little goal action came at either end but the visitors looked fractionally more likely to break the deadlock. The best moments of the game so far, however, were a beautifully timed tackle in the box from Gateshead’s Craig Baxter and a superb block from Williams.

The natives were getting very restless by this point and some audible rumblings and shouts were emanating from Brentford’s three sparsely occupied stands. Whether this served to ignite Brentford or not it’s difficult to say ut they did start to have more of the possession. On 42 minutes they then took the lead, somewhat fortuitously, when a spot of pinball in the box saw Ben Strevens force the ball over the line at the back stick.

Brentford are not having a great season thus far but the hand gestures and fury that was directed at the Gateshead fans when Brentford broke the deadlock, was somewhat odd and uinnecessary. What went on in the first game to spark that? It was only a small section of Brentford fans but why they couldn’t just celebrate going in front is beyond us.

Three minutes later and the game was effectively over. A long but very accurate ball out of Brentford’s defence found Cleveland Taylor wide on the right. Taylor stood up the kind of cross that screams ‘HEAD ME’ and Charlie MacDonald duly did. 2-0. It was tough not just on the Gateshead team generally but primarily Paul Farman in the Heed’s goal, who had marshalled and cajoled his team mates through an otherwise very satisfactory 45 minutes

Half time saw the landmark introduction of Bovril to the season. This means that winter is officially here. This was good, indeed significantly better than the high price low content meat products that several of us sampled.

The teams came back out, the Brentford players sprinted over to the touchline in front of the away fans and proceded to warm up by doing frantic shuttle runs up and down a line painted stand-side of the pitch. What the fuck? We were a bit bemused by this, it smacked of intimidation or cod-psychology but just ended up looking very camp. If it was intended to generate some response from the away fans it did, hysterical laughter. Why not do it down the side in front of the Brentford fans, surely it would gee them up more

After a disallowed Brentford strike, a long ball over the top caught out the Bees backline and Graeme Armstrong had enough pace to get to it and keep the defenders at bay. He arrowed the ball past Price and Gateshead were back in it. Our collective half time thoughts that the next goal would change the game had possibly come to pass.

This proved wrong. Marcus bean sliced through the Gateshead midfield and slipped a pass through the defence to MacDonald who slipped the ball past Farman. Game over this time, surely.

Even after the goal Brentford didn’t look convincing at the back or with the more defensive duties of the midfield. Gateshead had a fair amount of possession without creating too many chances but when Brentford broke they broke with pace and with unerring accuracy. By 75 minutes Brentford were, deceptively, 5-1 up and Gateshead were looking at a hiding.

Armstrong scored a second, identical to his first, with 10 minutes left but it was too little too late and Brentford played out the remainder of the game looking dangerous every time they went forward. 5-2.

On the night, stewards outnumbered away fans, not that there was a particular dearth of away fans, just a glut of stewards. The most amusing steward had the difficult task of monitoring the shut and empty half of the bottom tier of the away stand. He kept casting admiring and provocative glances to the occupied half, as if willing someone to breach the barrier and enter his domain. At least he smiled.

To the absent, the scoreline suggested a fantastic game. It was OK but Brentford shone mainly on the break and mostly when the pressure was off. The visitors lived with and even bettered their League 1 opposition for the first 40 minutes or so but then two quick goals before half time effectively ended the tie. Brentford’s confidence boosted, they upped their game and looked a more assured outfit but they were really just picking off a team pushing up to get a goal back. Gateshead were solid until goal 1, played some decent football but, ultimately, were two leagues lower than the Bees and the end product illustrated that. A side nearer the top of Blue Square Premier may well have given Brentford more of game.

More obvious though was the atmosphere and the clear aura that we were now in the big leagues. The league crowd were more tribal, the stewarding over-zealous and the second half warm up was just crass and classless. I can only assume Andy Scott is a disciple of the Adie Boothroyd school of management, in which case, his current standing in the up-and-coming manager pecking order may be fairly short lived.

There were signs of life lower down and the serious attempts here to aspire to a higher league were belied by the half time chalk-board draw and sparse terraces. The FA Cup is heading towards the upper echelons so it will soon by time to go back in our nice warm lower league hutch.

Thanks to our little chat with Ashy earlier in the week and the few League two sides dumped out of the cup on Saturday, we were rather looking forward to this. The pre-match atmosphere around the Stones relatively new home did nothing to quell this. The locals were excited and we met a few Rotherham fans, erring on caution with predictions given recent form but reasonably confident of avoiding the proverbial banana skin

Partly thanks to averageness of height and partly because of the decision not to get a seated ticket we struggled to get a meaningful view of much of the early action. It’s obviously difficult to cater for 1600+ fans with a ground set up for a 1000 less than that and with little banked standing room. That said, the officiousness of the presumably non-regular stewards who had been drafted into the match perhaps didn’t help. On with the cliches.

The cameraman was on the roof and he got an early touch of the ball from a Wealdstone clearance. One could lazily depict the opening exchanges with analogy to the Haye/Valuev fight, both the big man and the smaller but potent challenger swapping some tentative jabs. A promising underdog move snuffed out with a clearance from a weak shot after a nifty backheel on the Wealdstone left.

The lino was getting some light hearted banter thanks to some questionable offside calls and a slight resemblance to Ashley off of that Eastenders. Wealdstone enjoyed some good spells of pressure, they showed no signs of being overawed and no signs of being out of their depth. Rotherham had a few corners but they were dealt with well and Wealdstone had a questionable penalty turned down. The partisan crowd were convinced but we didn’t see enough of it to tell.

Inevitably in such situations the League side broke the deadlock with some outrageous fortune. Thomas in the Wealdstone goal tried to clear a backpass, got his angles slightly wrong and hit the advancing Le Fondre, off whom it returned past the unfortunate ‘keeper and into the goal. We thought it was an arse goal and shocking bad luck for the home side. An undeserved lead for the away side.

Wealdstone 0 Rotherham 1

The Wealdstone lads did not let their heads drop and they passed the ball around as neatly as their more illustrious opponents, if not more so on occasion. They had a shot blocked and some through balls didn’t quite find their target. They did ride their luck too, surviving a penalty box free kick given, we think, for Thomas collecting a back pass.

Rotherham had probably only created 3 or 4 half chances, the next one however was a rasping drive from Ellison that Thomas could not get anywhere near. 2-0 Rotherham and it was a bit harsh on the Ryman Premier side. An error and a class finish was all that separated the teams at the interval.

HT Wealdstone 0 Rotherham 2

It was ruddy cold but the sun had come out. Pies – sold out. Burgers – sold out. Chips. Hotdogs. Nice chips. Some people moved at half time and we managed to settle down to the second half with a view.

The Stones came out with some purpose, which was good because they had some work to do and they had showed they were capable of causing the Lge 2 promotion challengers some problems. Undaunted, the sparring continued but there was more urgency about both sides, particularly the home side. The game ebbed and flowed.

Wealdstone attacked with purpose and from a ball across the box, Ryan Ashe unleashed a volley that Old Man Warrington in the Rotherham goal had no chance with. Warrington had been getting a few comments about his age, he did look old, although the programme suggested otherwise.

Wealdstone 1 Rotherham 2

Wealdstone were having some good moments and seemed to have unsettled the Rotherham defence since half time. E’Beyer shot just past the post. Was that the chance? There was still pressure so maybe not.

Rotherham finally broke out and a rash challenge brought them respite in the home side’s half. A free kick was floated into the box and Broughton flicked a deft header past Thomas. That was surely it.

Wealdstone 1 Rotherham 3

Wealdstone had other ideas. They piled on the pressure and the home fans drove them on. There were a few half chances and some tension in the Rotherham defence but they just couldn’t find a way through and were running out of time. After a bit of pin ball the ball fell to Ashe on the right of the box, he turned inside leaving the defender behind and floated a ball over the keeper into the corner. Another cracking goal from our favourite Wealdstone player.

Wealdstone 2 Rotherham 3

Was the equaliser on? We moved right up the end the Stones were attacking, the refs assistant had apparently signalled 4 mins and it was looking unlikely. Rotherham may well have been three leagues above but they had to fight for this. In the last couple of minutes a shot went narrowly past the post and Stones had a corner or two that caused some ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ among the nervous home fans but the ball just wouldn’t go in. A valiant effort but not quite enough.

FT Wealdstone 2 Rotherham 3

Rotherham were a bit fortunate and the Wealdstone fans had played their part in attempting to overcome the odds. It was an impressive performance from the Ryman side but wasn’t quite enough this time. Nevertheless, Gordon Bartlett’s tactics were good and his team did him proud. It was perhaps enough to put 10-20% on Wealdstone’s next home gate though. A lot of the fans we passed talked a good game, as if they were regulars but there were more than 4 times the last home gate there so some of them were fibbing. A lot sounded as though they’d be back. One can hope that Wealdstone do get those extra fans, the team certainly deserve it with their good football.

Final word. The ref. Well done. Barely noticed him. Thanks to Andy Taylor for the photos.

Today, The Real FA Cup is launching its official song!

It’s called “This Is A Football Song” and was written by a friend of ours many years ago.

You can find the lyrics and the original recording here.

We are inviting anyone who is interested to record their own version of it and to send it to us at admin@therealfacup.co.uk – if we like it, we’ll publish it here (along with your name and website, if you so wish).

So get your guitar out and tune those vocal chords and maybe you could end up with your tune becoming the Official Version of the Official Song of The Real FA Cup!

Hendon FC’s Supporters Trust will be the lucky recipients of some benevolent love on Oct 12th when St Etienne & Richard X take to the stage as part of the Social’s 10th anniversary celebrations.

Tickets at the link below, some of us may well be there …

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/60109

therealfacup were hoping to build on the massive SIX followers who came with us to a festival of football and wasps at Dulwich in the last round. Typically, just as the momentum builds, it seems we’ve been split into two factions thanks to prior engagements. One faction is heading west to Farnborough .v. Hastings Utd, the other south to Horsham YMCA .v. East Grinstead Town.

Dubble Bubble. Details upon application.

Reportz 2 follow

On the upside, therealfacup makes The Guardian’s ‘Our Favourite Things This Week’!

Woop Woop!

oaks

Hamlet

Directions to Champion Hill are simple and require little effort, take the train to East Dulwich from London Bridge. Trains depart every 15mins and it takes a mere 12 to get there. You’ll see the ground from the platform but if not, turn left out of the station and walk up the road towards Sainsbury’s. You should see the floodlights from the road so head across the small park or into Sainsbury’s main entrance. The entrance to teh ground is next to the carwash. The Vale pub is more or less opposite the station and shows football galore.

In the course of the next few days we’ll hopefully have some interviews from each side, a preview of the round and details for the day. If you want to join us, drop us a line, but we’ll almost certainly be pre-match-ing at The Vale in East Dulwich.

therealfacup

Legend!

Let’s put this in context a little bit, when the bulk of the weekend’s cup matches get underway they will be vying for attention with the Premier League kick off. £750 is the bounty for getting to the next round, roughly equivalent to 30 seconds worth of quality John Terry playing time. I kid you not. If JT plays 52 games this season, his wages will be nearly £1500 per minute of actual playing time.

So who’s going to get their mitts on this massive bag of cash? We couldn’t possibly run our eye over all 203 games in a Joe Cole-sized package such as this so let’s pick out a few, maybe you’ll want to pop down and see one?

At the time of writing, the FA Cup itself would appear to be getting its first outing of the season at Hertford Town on Friday evening. It is allegedly being escorted to the ground by the dad of one of the Hertford defenders. Sounds unremarkable doesn’t isn’t? Mind you, the defender in question is Pablo Ardiles, son of Spurs and Argie legend OSSIE! Hertford will be hosting Newport Pagnell Town who appear to be, singularly, the most organised and accessible club on the web, even if the colours are a bit mad on the eye. Thumbs up for NPT!

http://www.nptfc.co.uk/newsite/index.html

Also on Friday, Atherton LR visit Bacup Borough, who boast former Manchester City star Andy Hill as part of their management team. Last time Andy played professionally in the FA Cup he spent 210 minutes thwarting Arsenal in 1998 before an agonisingly close shoot out defeat.

Potton Utd .v. Hoddesdon Town boasts the competition’s youngest manager in Potton’s 24 years young joint manager, Tom Galvin. I haven’t actually researched this that thoroughly but how many other managers are 24?! 24! Hoddesdon, on the other hand, have a patron who may or may not be at the game. He’s having a very busy night tonight and he is OSSIE Ardiles!!!

The visitors to Littlehampton Town are, annoyingly, more famous for housing the training facilities for some of the Premier League’s largest wallets. Fortunately, they do actually have a famous international alumnus. Admittedly, the international team in question is the England cricket team but, nevertheless, Cobham does boast as life-member and former net minder, TMS box regular Bob Willis! We’re impressed. And, as the final Test doesn’t start until next week, he’s got no excuse to miss this.

Further North we have Billingham Synthonia .v. Birtley Town. The brilliantly monikered Synthonia line up has, in more halcyon days, included the decreasingly famous ex-players Brian Clough, Bernie Slaven and Curtis Fleming. More uniquely, they claim to be the only team to be named after Synthetic Ammonia, which gave rise to their very incongruous name when the team was affiliated with the now departed megalith of chemicals, ICI. And, once again the legend strikes, Ossie once had his house painted by ICI product!

FA Vase holders Whitley Bay host a newly ‘sponsored’ team called Dunston UTS. UTS are an engineering firm who can “achieve answers to any pipeline dilemma”. Fabulous.

Manchester’s Abbey Hey have arguably the toughest tie of this round, on paper. Albeit a home tie and on the same rung of the ladder, they face a daunting ‘Roses’ clash with Sheffield’s Hallam. Hallam, the second oldest club in the world, must have made even Bryan Gunn wince with their opening day 9-1 away victory, while Abbey Hey’s own effort might have bought a knowing grin, a 1-5 home defeat. Ossie watch has little to say here, except that he could probably still score against Norwich.

Among the others, we have ties all over the country, Stone Dominoes .v. Cadbury Athletic, Dereham Town .v. Leiston, Guildford City .v. St Francis Rangers and Barnstaple Town .v. Tavistock. Go on, support your local team. If not, support someone else’s local team, have a holiday, you’re worth it.

See also, Simon’s Brilliant Cup Game Map:

http://therealfacup.co.uk/2009/07/03/map-of-extra-qualifying-round-matches/