Maidstone United’s terrific 2-1 victory at EFL Championship side Ipswich Town in this season’s FA Cup 4th Round brought not only a club record run in the competition for the Stones, but also established Maidstone United as members of a very exclusive club.
The Stones are the lowest ranked side for 46 years to make the last 16 of the FA Cup, and by doing so they are also only the eleventh non-league club ever to make it this far in the competition (since the current structure was adopted for the 1925-26 season).
The current structure of exempting the top two tier clubs until the 3rd Round and other Football League clubs until the 1st Round was instigated by the FA as a consequence of significant changes that had happened to the Football League structure following the end of World War One.
Southern League clubs had long been regarded as equivalent in standard to those clubs that were members of the two Football League divisions, with FA Cup exploits over the years to confirm it, and so for the 1920-21 season the clubs that made up the Southern League were absorbed into the Football League and named as Division Three.
The following season a second Division Three was formed made up of northern and midlands based clubs creating two third tier divisions in the Football League and removing at a stroke arguably the better 40 or so non-league clubs from being defined as such. The FA Cup structure was soon changed to reflect this transition of non-league clubs to Football League clubs and the format that is known and loved so much to this day was established almost 100 years ago.
It’s little wonder, then, that the appearance of non-league clubs in the latter stages of the FA Cup pretty much ceased overnight. The chances of Tottenham Hotspur’s historic feat of just 25 years earlier being repeated became infinitesimal. And so it was more than 20 years after the new structure was adopted that a non-league club once again ventured as far as the last 16 of the competition.
Colchester United had only been formed just prior to the outbreak of WWII following the demise of Colchester Town and had competed in the Southern League from the club’s foundation. The 1947-48 season, fewer than 10 years after their formation, would prove to be an historic one for the club in the FA Cup.
A 3-1 victory in the 4th Qualifying Round over another club formed in 1938, Chelmsford City, resulted in a home tie against Birmingham Combination side Banbury Spencer in the 1st Round ‘Proper’. Winning that tie 2-1 took Colchester United into the 2nd Round for the first time where they also defeated Football League opponents for the first time, winning 1-0 at home to Wrexham of Division Three North.
Bob Curry was their goal-scoring hero for that match and it was he that would make FA Cup history in the 3rd Round by scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Huddersfield Town of Division One, the first time a top-flight club had been defeated by a non-league side since the current structure was put in place. And Curry would score twice more in the 4th Round as Colchester United defeated a second tier club in the FA Cup in their 3-1 victory over Bradford (Park Avenue).
The U’s historic Cup run was ended with a 5-0 defeat at Bloomfield Road by Blackpool FC, Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortenson et al, but their place in FA Cup folklore was assured. But remarkably, after waiting more than 20 years for a non-league club to venture that far in the FA Cup, history repeated itself just one season later.
This time it was fellow Southern League side Yeovil Town who were making waves in the FA Cup. Their run started in the 4th Qualifying Round with a 3-2 win at Lovell’s Athletic, the works team of G. F. Lovell and Co. Ltd. based in Newport, South Wales.
That win was followed by two almost symmetrical 4-0 victories against two other non-league sides in the 1st & 2nd Rounds, Romford from the Isthmian League at home then Weymouth from the Western League away, where in both games the goals were scored by Jack Hargreaves, Bobby Hamilton and a brace by Eric Bryant.
Hamilton and Hargreaves were on the scoresheet again as the Glovers won 3-1 against Second Division side Bury in the 3rd Round, resulting in the club getting the plum draw of the 4th Round, a home tie against First Division Sunderland, a club nicknamed the ‘Bank of England’ due to their high spend on player recruitment.
In those early post-war years, clubs could decide between them whether or not to play extra time in the first game should their FA Cup match be all square after 90 minutes. That option was available to try to minimise spend on scarce resources such as petrol. Notwithstanding a 680 mile round trip, the board at Sunderland may have agreed to the extra time option merely because of an expectation it wouldn’t be needed. However, they would end up regretting that decision.
The outcome of the match is still regarded by many football analysts as the greatest FA Cup shock of them all. On their famous sloping Huish Athletic ground pitch, and in conditions often regarded as a great leveller, Yeovil Town held Sunderland to a one-one draw after 90 minutes. Eric Bryant proved to be their hero on the stroke of half-time in extra time, scoring the goal that produced the Glovers’ famous 2-1 victory, a victory that sent shockwaves across the world of football.
Manchester United away in the last 16, a game played at Maine Road due to old Trafford still being repaired following war damage, proved to be a step too far for Southern League Yeovil Town, as a five goal haul by Jack Rowley contributed to a one-sided 8-0 victory for the Red Devils. However, the run for Yeovil Town that season would forever be remembered, not least for their outstanding victory over Sunderland, but also because it became cemented in people’s minds owing to the fact it would be almost 30 years before another non-league club repeated their exploits.
A 3-0 victory at fellow Northern League side Shildon in the 1st Qualifying Round tie of the 1977-78 season by Blyth Spartans would have been celebrated by the Northumberland based club anyway, despite not knowing what it would eventually lead to that season. The Spartans had separately made the first, second and third rounds of the competition in the previous five seasons, but nothing could have prepared them for what was to come.
Another Northern League side, Crook Town, were also dispatched 3-0 in a replay in the 2nd Qualifying Round, with a third league opponent defeated in the next round with a 4-1 victory at Consett. A 1-0 win at Bishop Auckland in the 4th Qualifying Round made it four fellow Northern League clubs sent packing on this Cup run.
Three successive 1-0 home victories would follow as the Spartans broke the club’s best ever FA Cup run. Ian Mutrie scored the winner against Cheshire County League side Burscough in the 1st Round, Steve Jones netted the only goal against Division Three side Chesterfield in the 2nd Round, and Alan Shoulder headed the match winner against Isthmian League side Enfield in one of only five third round ties ever to be contested by two non-league clubs in FA Cup history.
Then came the oft-postponed 4th Round tie at Stoke City from Division Two. A brace for Terry Johnson and a Steve Carney strike gave the Spartans a remarkable 3-2 victory as they became the lowest ranked club ever to reach the last 16 in the FA Cup. The club’s reward was not to face one of the giants from Division One, but an away tie at Third Division Wrexham.
Johnson scored again to earn a replay, but such was the demand for this match the ‘home’ game was played at a packed St James’ Park, the actual home of Newcastle United. Even to this day Spartans fans bemoan the unfairness of the 2-1 defeat that day, whilst the rest of football remembers the club’s FA Cup exploits that season with delight.
And by going from the 1st Qualifying Round to the 5th Round ‘Proper’, Blyth Spartans not only became the third non-league club to reach the last 16, but they also joined another exclusive club, one whose handful of members have all participated in nine FA Cup ties in the same season.
Seven years later it was the turn of the now defunct Telford United to make FA Cup history by reaching the last 16 as they became the first non-league club to defeat four Football League sides in the same FA Cup run.
The Alliance Premier League side’s run to the 4th Round the previous season had been rewarded with an exemption to the 1st Round ‘Proper’ for the 1984-85 campaign. Lincoln City of the Third division became Telford’s first victim as the Bucks won 2-1 at home following a one-one draw at Sincil Bank.
Two former FA Cup winners were defeated in the next two rounds, Preston North End 4-1 away in the 2nd Round and Bradford City 2-1 at home in the 3rd Round, thereby equalling the club’s record Cup run of the previous season.
Colin Williams opened the scoring at Fourth Division Darlington, netting his sixth goal of the campaign. However, Telford had to settle for a draw and a replay, where they strolled to a 3-0 victory to establish that aforementioned FA Cup record, and set up a trip to Goodison Park to face Division One side, and FA Cup holders, Everton.
A 3-0 defeat at the Toffees was by no means a disgrace, and seven Football League sides defeated by Telford United over two consecutive seasons in the FA Cup has yet to be matched by another non-league club.
Kidderminster Harriers became the next non-league club, though, to match Telford’s run to the last 16 of the FA Cup, doing so nine years later. The Conference League side began their 1993-94 FA Cup campaign with a 4-1 victory at Chesham United of the lower Isthmian League Premier Division in the 4th Qualifying Round.
The Harriers then defeated two other Conference sides in the first two ‘proper’ rounds, winning 3-0 at home to Kettering Town in the 1st Round and 1-0 at home to Woking in the 2nd Round. Those two wins took the club into the 3rd Round for the first time ever where they were drawn away at First Division strugglers Birmingham City, in the second tier.
Goals from Neil Cartwright and Jon Purdie gave the Harriers a terrific 2-1 victory at St. Andrews and earned the club a home tie against Preston North End in the 4th Round, won 1-0 thanks to a Delwyn Humphreys strike. That narrow victory brought Premier League opposition to Aggborough in the shape of West Ham United.
A solitary goal by Lee Chapman won the tie for the Hammers, but Kidderminster Harriers had established themselves as one of the best non-league clubs in FA Cup history. There would be a 17 year gap before another non-league club achieved the same feat.
The owners of Crawley Town were determined to take the West Sussex club into the Football League and invested heavily to make it happen. Promotion duly arrived at the end of the 2010-11 season, but only after the Red Devils had become the sixth club to reach the last 16 of the FA Cup as a non-league side earlier in the season.
Their campaign began with a 1-0 win at fellow Conference Premier side Newport County in the 4th Qualifying Round, followed by a crushing 5-0 away defeat of lower level Conference North side Guiseley in the 1st Round ‘Proper’.
Third tier Swindon Town were defeated 3-2 after extra time in a 2nd Round replay at the County Ground. Then, a last minute winner by Sergio Torres in their 2-1 victory over Championship side Derby County took Crawley Town into the 4th Round of the FA Cup for the first ever time.
Matt Tubbs scored the only goal as Crawley Town won 1-0 at fourth tier Torquay United in the 4th Round to take the non-league Red Devils to the home of the Premier League Red Devils, Old Trafford. Manchester United won the match, but only courtesy of a Wes Brown strike, whilst Crawley Town went on to achieve their dream of Football League status at the end of the season, and promptly reached the last 16 of the FA Cup again the following year.
Two years after Crawley’s first run to the 5th Round it was the turn of a former top-flight club and former FA Cup Finalists, Luton Town, to charge to the last 16 of the competition as a non-league outfit.
A 2-0 win at fellow Conference National side Cambridge United kick-started the 2012-13 FA Cup campaign for the Hatters in the 4th Qualifying Round, and an exact same result against another Step Five club Nuneaton Town in the 1st Round ‘Proper’ continued their run.
The 2nd Round witnessed a 2-1 home victory over lower level Dorchester Town from Conference South, whilst the 3rd Round brought Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers to Kenilworth Road. An Alex Lawless strike at the start of the second half was enough to give the Hatters a 1-0 giant-killing victory, and more was to come in the 4th Round.
There they were drawn away at Premier League Norwich City. A non-league club had yet to win at top-flight opponents since the Premier League began in 1992, but a late Scott Rendell strike put an end to that particular stat, in the process making Luton Town the seventh non-league club to reach the last 16 of the FA Cup. The Hatters’ run ended with a 3-0 home defeat to EFL Championship side Millwall.
Four years later, FA Cup records went tumbling left, right and centre, as not one but two non-league clubs battled their way through to the last 16 of the competition. National League sides Lincoln City and Sutton United undertook a two-pronged attack that took the FA Cup by storm.
Both clubs defeated fellow National League sides in the 4th Qualifying Round of the 2016-17 competition, Sutton United winning 2-1 at home against Forest Green Rovers and Lincoln City winning by the same score-line at Guiseley in a replay. Sutton then had a remarkable 6-3 victory away at Dartford from lower level National League South in the 1st Round ‘Proper’, whilst Lincoln won 2-1 at home to National League North side Altrincham.
Six years after scoring in Crawley Town’s historic run to the last 16, Mat Tubbs netted for Sutton United in their 2-1 home win over EFL Two side Cheltenham Town in the 2nd Round. Lincoln City won 3-2 against EFL One Oldham Athletic. Two very late goals for Sutton United then gave them a 3-1 replay win at AFC Wimbledon in the 3rd Round, whilst Nathan Arnold also scored a late winner for Lincoln city as they beat Championship side Ipswich Town.
The fourth round was where FA Cup history was made with both clubs defeating Championship opponents to take two non-league clubs into the last 16 of the FA Cup in the same season for the first time ever. A James Collins penalty was enough for Sutton United as they avenged a past heavy defeat by Leeds United in the competition, whilst Lincoln City won 3-1 against Brighton and Hove Albion.
Both clubs would eventually become unstuck by Arsenal. Sutton United fell to goals from Lucas Perez and Theo Walcott in the 5th Round whilst Lincoln city were creating more FA Cup records by winning 1-0 at Premier League side Burnley. Sean Raggett’s late winner meant Burnley became the first club to lose at home to two different non-league clubs whilst members of the top-flight.
Meanwhile, Lincoln City became only the second non-league club to defeat four Football League opponents in the same Cup run, and the first non-league club to appear in the FA Cup Quarter Finals since Queens Park Rangers did so 103 years previously.
The Imps succumbed to a 5-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium in the Quarter Finals, but Lincoln City are still the only non-league club to date to have reached the last eight of the competition since the current structure was put in place.
Boreham Wood became the tenth non-league club to reach the last 16 of the FA Cup in the 2021-22 season, and they did it by creating another FA Cup record.
The Wood began their campaign with a 1-0 win at fellow National League side Barnet in the 4th Qualifying Round and followed that up with a 2-0 home victory over another National League opponent, Eastleigh. Lower level St. Albans City from National League South were then defeated 4-0 in the 2nd Round.
A second successive 3rd Round appearance resulted in a 2-0 home victory over AFC Wimbledon to take the Wood into the 4th Round for the first time ever. There, a Mark Ricketts strike gave the club a 1-0 victory at Championship side AFC Bournemouth a result that meant that Boreham Wood became the first non-league club to reach the last 16 of the FA Cup without conceding a goal on route to doing so.
Their reward was a trip to Goodison Park where a Jose Rondon double for Everton ended the Hertfordshire club’s FA Cup adventure. The following season the club would become only the fourth non-league side to reach the FA Cup 3rd Round in three successive seasons.
And so to Maidstone United who this season became only the second non-league side to reach the last 16 of the FA Cup having started their campaign earlier than the final 4th Qualifying Round. A 4-1 win at Steyning Town Community in the 2nd Qualifying Round was followed by a 2-0 win at Winchester City before the Stones won 2-0 again at Torquay United in the 4th Qualifying Round.
A third successive away 2-0 win at Chesham United in the 1st Round ‘Proper’ was followed by a 2-1 home comeback win over EFL Two side Barrow. Then EFL One opponents Stevenage were defeated 1-0 thanks to a Sam Corne penalty, and the same player then scored the winner at Championship side Ipswich Town in the 4th Round.
And who knows, with a trip to another Championship side in the 5th Round, Maidstone United now have a chance to become the lowest ranked club ever to reach the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup!
FA Cup Factfile 