It's Grimsby Up North!

We have a fairly idyllic life at the Nedved homestead, especially on Sundays. This past Sunday morning was spent dossing around, eating breakfast in front of the telly, and revelling in the extra hour of sleep from daylight savings' introduction. All the while, though, I was keeping one eye on the clock. At 1 pm ITV was going to broadcast the draw for the First Round Proper of the FA Cup. The idea that something involving Bath City was going to be played out on National television was still hard to believe. The idea that City might end up with a fixture that got television coverage, and with it enough revenue to double the club's budget was hard to even contemplate. The whole morning passed with me feeling like a child on Christmas waiting for the presents to be opened.

After church Mrs Nedved prepared a delicious roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings. She is an excellent cook even in routine situations. Sunday afternoons, however, are a tour de force in comfort food not to be missed. This is good, because if it was left to me Sunday dinner would usually be comprised of beans on toast. Possibly tinned spaghetti, but certainly not anything of Mrs Nedved's calibre.

Our plates were groaning with vegetables, chicken, a homemade Yorkshire pudding, and topped with gravy at 12:45. I didn't want to miss the draw, but there are some things in life more important than football. It turned out that I had more time than I realised anyway. Although ITV's coverage of the draw began at 1pm, the first fifteen minutes of their broadcast was filled with the sort of airy nothingness that ITV Sport specialises in.

The Nedved Juniors and I cleaned our plates at a leisurely rate and settled in together in an armchair in front of the sitting room telly. I had a copy of that day's Non-League Paper with the list of teams in the draw. Big Nedved Junior had a dog-eared copy of Match from which he was going to tick off the League clubs as their names were announced. Just to make sure everyone was aware, I repeated several times that Bath City's ball was number 77!

There is nothing like the FA Cup draw in American sports that I know of. Although there are some large tournaments in American sports, none of them use a random draw for each round. There are usually seeds, and even when they are not teams progress from one round to the next on a chart like a sideways family tree. Before you play any match you know that you can only play only one of two teams in the next round. Having each round set up completely randomly makes the FA Cup draw very exciting. Bath City could draw any of the remaining thirty-two non-league sides or any of the forty-four League 1 & 2 sides. Depending on who Bath City was paired with they could either play the next round in the glare of the national media, or in relative obscurity. A lot depended on this draw.

For reasons I do not understand, the FA selected former Charlton Athletic player Chris Powell and England cricketer James Anderson to make the draw itself. I watched the first three balls being pulled from the large plastic basin with baited breath. Bath City, in my experience, are usually one of the last teams drawn. I was really surprised when James Anderson drew ball number 77 on only his second turn. On the screen below him was the team Chris Powell had already drawn to host us in the next round: Grimsby Town!

Grimsby Town? I had not been expecting Grimsby Town. I had been hoping for either a big club like Leeds or Charlton Athletic, or one of the few remaining clubs lower down the leagues than City (like our friends Paulton Rovers). Being neither one nor the other I couldn't help but feel a keen sense of disappointment. Meaning no disrespect to the good people of North-East Lincolnshire, it was not the sort of glamour fixture I had been dreaming of. The fact that the television announcer referred to Bath City's 'terrific cup pedigree' did not take the edge off of it.

The rest of the draw went by in a bit of a haze. I can remember Big Nedved Junior asking me after nearly every one of the remaining teams were drawn, 'are they good, Daddy?' I can remember trying to mentally calculate the distance to Grimsby from Bath. I can remember trying to mentally calculate how Mrs Nedved would react to my desire to travel to Grimsby and back on the same day in two weeks time. Once the draw was over I went to the car to get a road atlas and I sat and studied it silently for several minutes. I kept up a cheerful facade for the family's benefit, but inside I was not happy with the result.

As the day wore on, however, I began to feel differently about things. Despite living in the UK for ten years I've never been anywhere near Lincolnshire. I am always excited by going somewhere new. Also, the more I learned about Grimsby Town FC the more I thought Bath City might be in with a chance. They are next to last at the bottom of League 2. Last year they only survived relegation from the League because of Luton Town's thirty-five point deduction for financial mismanagement. So far they have only won one home game, and they have just fired their manager. That dangerous thing called hope began to kindle inside me once more.

A bit of time on the Grimsby Town forum gave me more reason to be happy with the draw. Despite the awfulness of watching their once proud team decline, the fans appear to have managed to remain a relatively cheerful lot. It is certainly a situation that would make most supporters become bitter, or rather more likely, stay away. After announcing my presence with a post I got the following message:

Welcome to the Grimsby site! We are mainly a self-deprecating group on here at the moment, with the loss of our manager, Mike Newell, a week ago today and a quick fire sale of young starlet defender Ryan Bennett to Peterboro for something approaching (allegedly) 500k.

They sound like a nice bunch, actually. It must be awful watching your club suffer so much. You almost hate for them to lose (well, that may be taking it a bit far, actually).

There is a bit of history as well. It turns out that this fixture will be the return match of an FA Cup meeting between the teams in 1951. Food is also a plus for this fixture. The Grimsby fans are quite convinced that their town hosts several of the very best Fish & Chips shops in the land. They have recommended several for us to try. The fact that their ground is only a short hop from the seaside, and that their club badge shows a trawler catching fish, makes me inclined to believe them.

If City can manage an away win to League opposition, pocket the £18,000 prize money, make the draw for the second round where the chances of drawing a big club are even better, it could turn out to be an excellent draw. If all this happens and I get to have some of the best fish and chips in the country at the same time..... well, it sounds perfect!

Our friends, Paulton Rovers, drew a plum fixture with Norwich City at home. Being the lowest ranked club left in the competition, and a first time entrant to the First Round Proper, they have become media darlings. The match is going to be televised by ITV1. It couldn't have happened to a nicer club (except us, of course). Well done Paulton!

Here's the draw in full if you want to relive the moment Bath City is mentioned on national television!