Chester vs Rushall Olympic 13th October 2010
Tonight Chester FC enters the Evo Stik League Challenge Cup for the first time, so The Cestrian thought it would be a good idea to shed some light on the competition.
The League Challenge Cup has been running since 1968 and was first won by Bangor City. Since then it has become the only cup competition that all members of the Evo Stik leagues compete in, with Premier Division clubs being given a bye to the third round.
The most famous winner’s of the competition are Wigan Athletic who beat Gainsborough Trinity in 1972 to lift the trophy. Not every team who has won the competition has reached such heady heights as the Premier League, with several clubs who have won the competition still being part of the Evo Stik League, such as Mossley and Bamber Bridge. Other teams have dropped down since winning the competition. Spennymoor United (now called Spennymoor Town), for example, now play in the STL Northen League (Step 9).
Last year’s winners were Boston United and Craig Singleton, the club’s commercial manager and press officer, spoke to The Cestrian about the cup run they enjoyed as well as the difficulties the extra fixtures brought up last year.
“Winning the Challenge Cup was the second part of an eventual treble”, which also included the Lincolnshire Senior Shield and the Evo Stik Premier Division Play-Off Final, “The main problem arose when the final was allocated in the week leading up to our final league match - where we
required three points to win the title! We won the cup final, but drew 0-0 at Marine on the last day, and needed the play-offs to secure promotion.”
Boston beat teams such as Hucknall Town, FC Halifax and Curzon Ashton on their way to the final, but the tie against Sheffield FC was the most memorable. “The fourth round tie against Sheffield should have been played away, but heavy snow in Yorkshire meant there was no prospect of the match being played for about two weeks. We switched the match to Boston at about 24 hours notice!
The final [against Retford United] was watched by 503 at Lincoln United's Ashby Avenue. Around 400 travelled from Boston. Goals from Marc Newsham and Jamie Yates sealed the final win.”
required three points to win the title! We won the cup final, but drew 0-0 at Marine on the last day, and needed the play-offs to secure promotion.”
Boston beat teams such as Hucknall Town, FC Halifax and Curzon Ashton on their way to the final, but the tie against Sheffield FC was the most memorable. “The fourth round tie against Sheffield should have been played away, but heavy snow in Yorkshire meant there was no prospect of the match being played for about two weeks. We switched the match to Boston at about 24 hours notice!
The final [against Retford United] was watched by 503 at Lincoln United's Ashby Avenue. Around 400 travelled from Boston. Goals from Marc Newsham and Jamie Yates sealed the final win.”
So a word of warning from Boston United about the fixture congestion a cup run can cause. But with Chester having such a large squad there is no reason why we should be afraid of trying to win every game. Besides, anyone else fancy FC United of Manchester in the third round?
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