The final match of round one proper is a-go. Will we have one last upset? Time to find out...
Chesham United host League One Lincoln City at The Meadow (19:15 BST)
It's a big night for Chesham United, who will have the TV cameras dotted around The Meadow for a much larger audience than what their usual National League South matches command.
For co-manager Michael Murray, it's key that his men remember that it's "just another football match" and not let the mammoth task at hand beat them before they've even set foot on the pitch.
"We are really excited but we are also focused as well," Murray told BBC Radio Three Counties.
"We don't want the occasion to get too much of us, we definitely feel like we've got something to give tonight and we want to try and attack the game as we would do in any fixture.
"We need to remember it's going to 11-on-11 on the night and we have just got to try and win as many battles as we can. If we can do that, we've got a chance in the game."
If Lincoln City wanted to know how dangerous their opponents Chesham United can be, they need only ask their fellow League One dwellers Bristol Rovers.
In 2015, the Generals pulled off a massive 1-0 upset against the Gas to reach the second round proper of the FA Cup for only the second time in their history.
Chesham were 75 places beneath Bristol Rovers at the time and today, they are facing a similar challenge to knock out a team of similar calibre sitting 76 places in front.
It's the kind of David and Goliath story that makes the FA Cup such a special competition and the Generals will be taking confidence away from that 2015 victory as well as their recent exploits.
The Buckinghamshire club won't be too phased by the additional media attention that a TV game offers either, having taken onboard a famous face as their director in 2022 - Alex Horne of Channel 4's Taskmaster fame.
With non-league Tamworth kicking off the round one weekend by defeating third-tier Huddersfield, it seems merely a daydream that a giant in the top division of the competition so far should be toppled to close it out - but Chesham are team capable of making dreams come true.
The Taskmaster's Touch
Ticket-holders to Alex Horne’s gig in Edinburgh on Monday evening be warned – there may be a very long interval. The comedian, and frontman of the Horne Section, did not know when he scheduled the tour that his football team would be playing a first-round FA Cup match on ITV.
With Chesham United kicking off against League One Lincoln half an hour before his own show begins, he is pondering how to keep up with the score. “Elton John apparently watched Watford’s FA Cup final on an iPad on his piano during a gig in Copenhagen,” he says. “But it’s mainly about the occasion, so it’s gutting I’m not there.”
As a club director Horne has, however, been helping to prepare the tiny ground for its closeup. The past week has been a busy one: TV gantries had to be built from scratch and additional toilets installed. Horne’s contribution was to shoot an intro for the broadcasters, “which was weird, because you’re trying to be a comedian, and it’s very easy to take the piss out of a non-league football club. But you also want to show that it’s genuine and, you know, I really love the place”.
The team’s profile has rocketed since Taskmaster, Horne’s global TV hit, became their shirt sponsor. Attendances have climbed from a few hundred two years ago to an average of 1,000, although the comic refuses to take credit. “Last season we won the first seven matches in the league and we’ve had that momentum ever since, because people suddenly realised we’re quite good.”
They are expecting 4,000 for Monday’s game, although Horne is less worried about crowd numbers than the fact they’ll be turned away from the bar. “The FA Cup’s weird because you can’t drink in the stands,” he says – most non-league supporters are used to being allowed to drink as they watch a game. He once found himself on the wrong end of the Football Association’s rules, turned away from the directors’ box for not wearing a tie.
A Non-League Community
Do Chesham have a rowdy end? “There’s about 50 rowdy-ish people who stand behind the opposition goal.” Horne enjoys the good-natured banter with the opposition goalkeeper “who can hear every word you’re saying”, and the fact the two sets of fans have to shuffle past each other at half-time. He compares the atmosphere to that at cricket, another sport he loves.
“The main thing is, you don’t have to sit down. If you’re going to watch a Premier League team, you can’t move, that’s it, you have to watch the football. At Chesham you see someone over there, go and chat to them for a bit, it’s really sociable.”
It’s a good time to be a Chesham supporter. Promoted last season, they are 10th in the National League South. They lost their top scorer, Ricardo German, to Hemel Hempstead in May but have a new centre-forward in Nathan Minhas, and the engine room is provided by the long-serving midfielder Lewis Rolfe and captain, Steve Brown. They also have two managers – helpful, because one was required to spend the past half-term week at Disneyland Paris with his family.
This will be the 10th time Chesham have competed in the FA Cup proper – their best result is a third-round defeat by Cambridge United in 1980, although eight years ago they won the Giant-Killing Award for their first-round defeat of Bristol Rovers. Last year they lost 2-0 to Maidstone in the first round, and this season’s qualifying run has earned them a reputation for late drama, including a stoppage-time header in the previous round against Yeovil. “Which is great,” says Horne, “because it’s helped the psychology of the players, and people have stopped leaving early.”
Chesham Women, meanwhile, play their own FA Cup first-round match against Fulham on Sunday. One of the players goes to the same school as Horne’s children and he is keen to note that the women’s side play fourth-tier football, which is higher than the men. They don’t yet get the same support, but the club are hoping to install a 4G pitch so the two teams can play their matches on the same day and share the crowd.
For Horne, who started going to games 20 years ago because the ground was five minutes from his house, it’s all about community. “After the last FA Cup match the pubs and bars in the high street were genuinely full. And we’re starting to see that more, with more away fans coming to Chesham, exploring the town. So that’s got to have a knock-on effect.” It’s a contrast to the trend of celebrity investment: Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at Wrexham, Tom Brady at Birmingham, Paul Carrick Brunson at Sutton, Mindy Kaling at Swansea.
An Alternative to the Billionaires?
“I haven’t chucked millions of pounds of Chesham because I can’t, and my wife would not let me,” says Horne. “Wrexham is really interesting because it seems to be an only good news story. But I don’t like that ‘money plus football equals success’. It seems slightly unfair on the other teams.”
Chesham’s increased attendances and promotion bonus have helped the club break even. “Before, the chairman and the owner had to dip in their own pockets a lot. Now we’re doing repairs that we’ve needed to do for years.” The £50,000 broadcast fee for the Lincoln game will mostly be spent on a new toilet block. “No one’s making money in non-league football.”
Are people seeking an alternative to the billionaire-driven, sportswashing world of the top tier? “I guess the Premier League is putting people off more and more,” says Horne. “And the Ballon d’Or fiasco this week, Real Madrid not turning up, that’s all quite embarrassing I think.” But he can’t give up his passion for Liverpool, and he’s taking his son to Anfield next week.
“I think you can have both,” he says. “There is nothing like seeing the Kop before a game. But equally there’s nothing like being in the stands at Chesham, where you know that every single person lives there. When Liverpool score, I sort of nod and go: ‘That’s good.’ And when Chesham score, I actually get excited and punch the air.”
Monday’s Edinburgh audiences may get to see that in person. “I actually think Lincoln won’t be miles ahead. They’ll be ahead in fitness, but not in skills.” But it’s more important, he says, to enjoy the ride for what it is.
“I speak with the players and they’ve said this is the biggest game of their lives. And you hear people say that about the FA Cup final, or an England match, but you don’t necessarily believe it, because it’ll happen again for those guys. Whereas, for our lot, this is possibly a one-off.”
The Generals' Chance
Michael Skubala’s men have recorded back-to-back league victories against Northampton and Stockport, and Lincoln have been clearly the better side in that pair of 2-1 wins.
Before that the Imps were beaten 3-0 by Crawley and 3-1 at home to Birmingham, and while Skubala’s men have conceded six goals, the limited chances Lincoln are offering to their opponents is a feature of their performances.
The Imps have allowed the opposition only 17 shots on target in their last five League One matches and they now travel to a side vastly inferior to that level.
Chesham are a decent side in the National League, but the Generals are hosting a team who may well be pushing for a place in the Championship come the end of the season.
It’s 13-10 that Lincoln win to nil at the Meadow and that looks the best way to side with what should be a comfortable Imps success.
The Generals were promoted to Vanarama National League South for the first time in March and, ahead of the weekend, were above pre-season title favourites Boreham Wood, Maidstone United and Chelmsford City.
On Monday, they host EFL League One opponents Lincoln City in the FA Cup 1st Round, looking to write another chapter in their history by beating the side 76 places above them in the English pyramid.
Tom Bodell from title sponsors Vanarama takes a closer look at Chesham’s rise.
Formerly of this parish, the Imps know a thing or two about cup-sets. In 2017, they became the first non-league side to reach the quarter-finals in more than a century.
With Vanarama emblazoned on their shirts during the run, Lincoln only saw their progress ended by Premier League giants Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. They had already defeated Championship sides Ipswich Town and Brighton, before seeing off Premier League outfit Burnley at Turf Moor.
But Chesham, having seen off Yeovil Town in the 4th Qualifying Round, are not to be taken lightly.
As the Imps were then, they are led by a joint-managerial duo in Michael Murray and James Duncan. The pair joined from Potters Bar Town in 2018 – where Duncan was manager and Murray a member of the coaching staff – earning a playoff place in 2023 before completing the job earlier this year.
After gradually finding their feet at Step Two, the Generals have lost just one of their last eight to move within touching distance of the playoff places – all while embarking on a Cup run.
Entertainment at The Meadow is almost guaranteed.
In their last home game, three goals in the final four minutes completed a comeback win against Chippenham Town. Nobody in National League South has scored more times than Chesham (24) and it’s not by chance.
The Buckinghamshire outfit have the second-best expected goals (xG) total in the division. Expected goals is a metric that assigns a score between 0-1 to every shot, based on the likelihood of going in. Only Dorking Wanderers – another of those early season favourites – can top Chesham’s 28.94.
The flip side of that commitment to entertainment is Chesham are yet to record a clean sheet this season. Only matches involving Worthing (48 goals) and Enfield Town (50) have seen more goals scored than their 44.
Speaking after another dramatic come-from-behind win, this time at Enfield, Michael Murray said: “We don’t like doing things easy, do we? We make things hard for ourselves and we’ve done nothing different today.”
Out of possession, Chesham are committed to pressing high. Nobody in National League South has recovered possession more often in their opponents’ half than Duncan and Murray’s side (399 times). They’ve also recorded the fifth-most successful offsides (30).
One interesting thing to note is the tactical flexibility of Duncan and Murray. While predominantly deploying a back three, they have adapted their system almost weekly.
In recent weeks, that has shifted to a notional back four. But, as we can see from their average position map, the role of T’Sharne Gallimore has pushed on at right-back while left-back Callum Adebiyi has tucked in to make a back three.
Not since 2015/16, when they lost 4-0 to Bradford City, have Chesham reached the FA Cup Second Round. Last term, they reached this stage only to lose to Maidstone United, who went on to become the story of the FA Cup.
We’ll be there on Monday to see if the Generals can march on and represent the Vanarama...
