FA TROPHY

[Eastside Urchin]

Is only 2 weeks away now and obviously the league is our bread and butter,but we could go along way in the trophy should we regain some sort of form,and while it is unlikely we could win the trophy,its a little more likely we could get to the final and not out of the realms of reality that we could reach the semis with a few decent draws,just thinking about it,we are at home in the next round and hopefully we will be able to get some revenge over brentwood,a couple of nice draws after that and who knows.

[and1inthetree]

maybe we should put out the capital league side for the trophy match. surely we have to concentrate on staying up now?

[Hornchurch "O"]

If we are concentrating on staying up we should put our under 18's in the Ryman League games.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

Ha ha 'O' how about a fans 11 with rob 'in the hole'?

[Eastside Urchin]

is that your hole westie,i bet you have always fancied me in there

[Miss.A.F.C.Hornchurch]

maybe we should put out the capital league side for the trophy match. surely we have to concentrate on staying up now?

 

yeah lets give some of the younger players a chance.

After all they seem to know how to play football, unlike the first team!!

[Eastside Urchin]

ridiculous,we would all crucify the manager if he put out the youth team and they lost 10-0 which could happen

best thing is to ride the storm and play your strongest side for every game,anyway we have a score to settle against brentwood and that will be settled by our first team

[obis]

We will get our revenge. The players will be up for it.

[and1inthetree]

to be perfectly honest, i'd rather we won a throw in on the half way line against folkestone on tuesday night than had a run in the trophy. it's a pile of crap trophy that grays can win and still not make any money out of it because of the police bill.

 

at the moment, it seems the manager is going to be crucified no matter what he does. I'd be more annoyed if a first team player picked up an injury by trying to get 'revenge' against a lower league side in a semi-worthless trophy. it would be a hollow victory anyway as they're in the next round of the cup competition that matters.

 

arsenal we're not, but i think jimmy could use the fa trophy matches to tinker with the side and try out people shining in the capital league and youth squads to see how they'll possibly fare in the 1st team.

 

fck the fa trophy imo.

 

 

[Eastside Urchin]

I like the trophy,and although we were stuffed on saturday we are still 8 places off the bottom and our home form (bar the canvey match) in the league is decent.

If we was still in the FA Cup i would suggest that the trophy be cast aside but the fact remains that should we get luton away at some stage we would make a fair amount of money from a gate of around 3-4'000

surely that has to be worth giving it a go,also these games have a habit of gaining form when the league form differs

[and1inthetree]

a run in the trophy in the hope of meeting luton away could also lead to a fixture pile-up, which could in turn lead to injuries or dropped points because of fatigue.

 

fck the fa trophy imo.

[Eastside Urchin]

think of the money

[and1inthetree]

i suppose i could save a few quid per match if we drop down a division...

[coupwotcoup]

Have to disagree with this young Tree. Being of a certain age - as you well know - I have attended

most Trophy finals since the first one in 1970 and a day out at Wembley means a lot to players

and fans alike.

Yes Grays did win it twice, but that was in the 'between Wembleys' era and with two-up from the

Conference introduced in 2003, the big guns in said league had wider horizons than a secondary

day out at Villa or Upton Park.

The facts prove the point

2001 - Canvey - Isthmian Prem (2nd)

2002 - Yeovil - Conference National (3rd)

2003 - Burscough - Northern Premier (18th)

2004 - Hednesford - Southern (20th)

2005 - Grays - Conference South (1st)

2006 - Grays - Conference National (3rd)

 

Since returning to Wembley, only one side from outside the top flight has reached the semi, so

methinks a day out under the arch means a lot to clubs.

Of course if you hadn't have got trounced by Hednesford in 2004, you may well have had fond

memories of a final to cherish too.

On second thoughts I am so glad you didn't get there as the thought of seeing pictures on the Net, of

Jeff King and Harpo together makes my skin itch..

[Eastside Urchin]

I just think as a football fan it is all about league titles,trophies,finals etc.

we all know the league is our bread and butter but the best days out are at cup finals,big cup away game.It is only rarely that you get a league game that is a proper away trip.

Look at the essex cup final at southend,or our trip to northamptonshire to play cogenhoe,fa cup away at boston.These are some of the best days out,whatever trophy it is in

 

 

 

 

and lets not forget weymouth.

Personally,i like to see every trophy we enter taken seriously and a team put out for each match that the manger thinks will win,whether there be a couple of young uns in the starting line up or not

[UD161]

Must say, I have to agree with Gooner here. Surely as a fan you want your Club to win trophies, play in big games etc. Therefore for a non-league club, the Trophy should matter. I remember the year we won the Conference, the one downer was being turfed out of the Trophy by Redditch. I wanted us to do the "double" that year and also don't like the fact the last game we will play in it for a while was a defeat to a lower side. Must also say, we played a full side and lost that day, we weren't resting players or anything.

 

Surely a potential day out at Wembley, however likely or unlikely should mean you want to do well in it?? Also, you are out of FA Cup, and so don't have loads of other competitions to worry about. Having been to Wembley in May, I can assure you that whatever the crowd etc, playing there is very special (I prefered the old one mind!!!).

[Eastside Urchin]

I can see trees point and if we were to lose our next two games then the league would probably take on more significance,but at the moment i think the 7-1 defeat and the responses are more of a knee jerk reaction after going out the cup in the manner we did

6 points from our next two games would probably put us up to top ten again and to be honest these are not the two hardest games we will play all season

Folkestone are not too clever,although no roll overs,they are a team we should beat at home and anyone who has been on the ricay forum would of read that they have their problems and a level of fans unrest on there

we can win both games

[YELLOW]

I don't think the Trophy has been the same since the restructuring of the non league a few years ago.

 

You have to get through at least 3 rounds just to face a Conference side. Nobody is really interested in the Trophy until the later rounds and very few Ryman Prem sides get that far now.

 

Most Conference sides are only interested in making money in the FA Cup or concentrating on getting out of the league or staying there so play weakened teams.

[Eastside Urchin]

good point but they are 3 winable games for any side

[cup of tea]

It would be nice to get a decent cup run - but not if we're playing in Div 1 North next season.

We can still turn it around in the league, it's still early days.