Chapter XXVII: Qualifiers and Opponents of the First Round

If FC United want to break into the FA Cup, they will first have to play three rounds of qualification. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

All FA member teams, including Premier League, Championship, League One, League Two and Amateur teams, can participate, but teams in the Amateur Division will need to play several qualifying rounds to qualify for the first round of the FA Cup, while League One and League Two teams will start directly from the first round. Premier League and Championship teams will join the FA Cup in the third round.

There are a total of eight rounds of the FA Cup, except for the semi-finals and finals, each round is within 90 minutes, the winner advances, a single elimination, if there is a draw within 90 minutes, there will be a rematch on a later date, the rematch is a draw within a minute, extra-time will be played, if there is no winner in extra-time, there will be a penalty shoot-out.

There are often a lot of upsets in this format, and a strong team can be bitten by a team in the lower leagues if they take a nap.

Among England fans, there will always be some story of a dragon slaying in the FA Cup.

Will FC United be the next dragon-slaying hero?

FC United's first opponent in the qualifying round was Kemel Laird, a team of the same level as FC United, who won 5-0 without much effort and successfully advanced to the next qualifying round.

On the day after the game, FC United's next opponent was drawn against Salford City, also in Manchester, in a Manchester derby that amounted to a lower league Manchester derby.

Salford City are in the sixth tier of the Northern Premier League, and FC United have never played against an opponent before. Nothing is known about the condition of the opponent.

However, the opponent is a team in the sixth tier, which is one notch higher than FC United in the seventh tier. What is the strength of the sixth-tier team, Marginson has no bottom in his heart.

The match against Salford City is scheduled for two weeks later on 22 September, when FC United will play two league games at home to Nantwich Town and Stafford Wanderers away.

In the end, FC United beat Nantwich Albion 5-0 and Stafford Rangers 2-1 away. It has won eight consecutive league games since the start of the league. Seven points off the second-placed team in the standings, it looks like there is no suspense left for FC United to qualify for the sixth division of the Northern Super League this season.

However, they were next in trouble in the FA Cup against sixth-tier side Salford City.

In less than 20 minutes into the game, FC United's goal has already been conceded twice, and the attacking ability of the sixth-tier teams is indeed much higher than that of the seventh-tier teams.

Marginson frowned, and if FC United's defence couldn't even defend against the sixth-tier team, then their FA Cup ambitions were a joke.

The only way for a weak team to challenge a strong team is to defend and counterattack, but if your own defense is not well organized and leaves too many gaps for the opponent, you can't talk about counterattacking.

Fortunately, at the end of the first half, FC United won a corner, and Li Qingshan received a header from Dean Stott's corner kick to pull one back for the team.

At half-time, Marginson was determined to drop back in midfield and link more closely with the backline and compress space for the opposition. There are two people in front, Nick and Li Qingshan.

Marginson has a lot of trust in Lee's offensive ability.

However, the team's defense was still chaotic in the second half, and most of the ball was in the hands of the opponent, but although the back line was very embarrassed by the opponent's impact, fortunately did not continue to concede the ball, and it was difficult for Salford to get the ideal shooting opportunity in the dense crowd of people in the box.

They quickly paid the price when Salfort tried to cut through FC United's bus on several occasions with a long-range shot from outside the box as goalkeeper James drove the ball in and Li Qingshan chested the ball to the side and cut into the box to grab a cross and head the equaliser.

Towards the end of the game, a Salford player fouled Li Qingshan, and FC United won a free kick from the right side of the penalty area more than 40 meters from the goal.

Dean Stott's free-kick cut an arc in the air and flew into the opponent's penalty area, and this time Li Qingshan seized the opportunity to head the ball into the net again. Defeat Salford City.

The team struggled to qualify for the next round of qualifying with a score of 3:2 on the road.

A week later, the team progressed to the first round of the FA Cup with a 3-1 home win over the other qualifiers, Logarithmic Kendall Town.

After the game, FC United's players gathered at Newton's Sith Pub to await the draw for the first round of the FA Cup.

At this time, there will be league teams joining. England has a large number of football clubs and football leagues, and these teams and leagues make up arguably the most complex league system in the world, and the top of this league system is the "Premier League", and there is only one level, the Premier League, with a total of 20 teams.

Under the English Premier League, it is called "English Football League" (The Football League), which is divided into three levels: English Championship (Coca-Cola Football League Championship, tier 2), League One (Coca-ColaFootbalLeagueOne, tier 3) and League Two (Coca-Cola Football LeagueTwo, tier 4). Each level consists of 24 clubs for a total of 72. The Premier League spun off from the English Football League in 1992, but it is customary for its 20 teams to join 72 FA teams in collectively being referred to as the "League Teams". These 92 clubs are all all-professional clubs. Other teams are collectively referred to as "non-league teams".

From the first round of the FA Cup, League One and League Two teams from the league will join, and the Premier League and Championship will start in the third round.

"If you want me to say, it's better to draw a non-league team this time so that we can make it to the third round."

"It would be nice to play a game at Old Trafford!"

"Hey, we're not going to go there to watch the game then." Some fans also joined the discussion.

FC United fans don't hate Manchester United, they are still Manchester United fans in a way, they just hate the Glazer family who bought Manchester United.

When FC United was founded, many fans said they would never go back to Old Trafford to watch the game. The reason is that they are reluctant to buy tickets for the Glazer family to profit.

"Dean, do you have a team you'd like to meet?"

Li Qingshan asked the captain Dean Stott, who was sitting next to him.

Dean thought for a moment and said: "Actually, I want to meet Burnley, but they are in the Premier League now, this round is impossible. ”

Dean came through Burnley's academy but has never played a game for Burnley's first team.

Seeing the captain's somewhat lost expression, Li Qingshan didn't ask again.

At this time, Jerome Wright, who had been refreshing the lottery page, suddenly shouted excitedly.

"The result is in, we play at home, the opponent is .........."

"Hereford United!"

An opponent from the Second Division!!