Surrey Senior Cup draw (1st & 2nd Rds)

[Briggers]

1st round

Mole Valley SCR   -v- Chipstead FC  
Epsom & Ewell   -v- Chertsey Town FC  
Woking FC   -v- Lingfield  
Colliers Wood United   -v- Ashford Town (Middx) FC  
Badshot Lea   -v- AFC Wimbledon  
Whyteleafe FC   -v- Carshalton Athletic FC  


2nd Round

Winner of Tie 1 -v- Winner of Tie 2
Winner of Tie 3 -v- Walton Casuals  
Godalming Town FC   -v- Camberley Town  
Leatherhead   -v- Molesey  
Egham Town   -v- South Park  
Horley Town   -v- Chessington & Hook United  
Corinthian Casuals FC   -v- Westfield  
Walton & Hersham FC   -v- Farnham Town  
Dorking Wanderers   -v- Redhill  
Metropolitan Police   -v- Guildford City FC  
Kingstonian   -v- Sutton United  
Ash United   -v- Croydon  
Beckenham Town   -v- Raynes Park Vale  
Frimley Green   -v- Tooting & Mitcham United  
Merstham   -v- Winner of Tie 4
Winner of Tie 5 -v- Winner of Tie 6
 

[E&E Rich]

Can't help thinking Woking, Carshalton and AFC Wimbledon will be wondering why teams of their size have to play in the first round, while so many Step 5 sides get byes. They'll all put virtual reserve sides out and hey presto the competition gets devalued further.

 

I preferred the old days where the top sides were exempt to the last 16 and the rest had to qualify. I'm sure the intention was for the big clubs to travel to the smaller ones from time to time and give them a payday, but we've hosted Sutton and Leatherhead in the last two years and had crowds of 104 and 101 because it's no longer seen as a high profile competition unless you get to the final. I have a couple of suggestions:

 

Suggestion 1: Top eight ranked sides exempt to last 16. This season it would be: Wimbledon, Woking, Sutton, Kingstonian, Carshalton, Met Police, Godalming (3rd - Step 4), Leatherhead (6th - Step 4).

 

The remaining 30 play two qualifying rounds with two byes in the first qualifying round which would go to Guildford (9th - Step 4) and Ashford Town (Mx) (10th - Step 4).Open draw in second qualifying round and the eight winners go through to an open draw with the "big 8"

 

Suggestion 2: All six Step 3 or above clubs exempt to last 16.  This season it would be: Wimbledon, Woking, Sutton, Kingstonian, Carshalton, Met Police.

The remaining 32 play two qualifying rounds with 8 byes in the first qualifying round which would go to Godalming (3rd - Step 4), Leatherhead (6th - Step 4), Guildford (9th - Step 4), Ashford Town (Mx) (10th - Step 4), Merstham (12th - Step 4) and Corinthian Casuals (14th - Step 4).

 

There would be 12 ties with the winners joining the 8 exempted clubs to make twenty teams competing for the ten spots and the ten winners go through to an open draw with the "big 6".

 

Personally, I prefer Suggestion 2 but this example requires the draw to be flexible so that ANY team of Step 3 status or above gets exempted to the last 16. Alternatively you just take the best 8 ranked clubs as in suggestion 1.

 

This way you may get more real interest taken by the bigger sides and you improve the competition's status as a result. Simples! 

 

I think I might drop the Surrey FA a line, but before I do, has anyone any other or better suggestions?

[Smudge]

Scrap the whole thing,a total loss leader for all Step 5 Clubs.Gone are the days of the bigger Clubs putting out any 1st teamers in the early rounds,hence the very low crowds that attend.Croydon must be over the Moon at drawing Ash away on a cold Midweek evening.

 

My Suggestion,Prize Money is offered to all Winning Teams in every Round,this would give every team an incentive to put out better Teams.

 

Increase the Winners Prize Fund to 10k from the paltry 2k it is currently.

[FITBhighlights]

To be honest I really like the Surrey County Cup as a Sutton fan. We have put out first teams against Combined Counties sides in the past and even our reserve side are a very good side, they beat Whyteleafe 5-2 last year. Keep it as it is!

[Luke]

Woking often put out their full first team. I remember from my days at Camberley oh to well. I won't say the full time score for old times sake but it was 7-0 at half time lol.

[Krooner]

2nd half was so much better and who can ever forget Sam Rafique outjumping their monster of a Centre Back.

[FITBhighlights]

Merstham were 2-0 up against the Woking first team last year, lost 5-2 in the end though. Took Godalming to knock them out, shame we then lost to Godalming as well!

[VPCTFC]

Scrap the whole thing,a total loss leader for all Step 5 Clubs.Gone are the days of the bigger Clubs putting out any 1st teamers in the early rounds,hence the very low crowds that attend.Croydon must be over the Moon at drawing Ash away on a cold Midweek evening.

 

My Suggestion,Prize Money is offered to all Winning Teams in every Round,this would give every team an incentive to put out better Teams.

 

Increase the Winners Prize Fund to 10k from the paltry 2k it is currently.

 

As far as I know, Surrey are the only county FA who currently give out prize money and that only started two years ago.

They give money out to the semi finalists in all their cups so to give all the winners money would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. It's not gonna happen.

 

Have a look at the other county cups and you'll see Surrey has some of the healthiest competitions in the country even though it's not as glorious as it used to be.

If there wasn't so much snobbery amongst so many fans, treating players who don't play for the first team every week as somehow inferior and not worth watching, everything would be fine.