Following the Friday exploits on the Wirral and Merseyside left me with a Saturday to explore a new ground. Southport’s home game was tempting given it was just up the coastline from Liverpool but when seeing they were entertaining bottom of the table Nuneaton Boro who already look doomed for the drop it looked a possible mismatch at Haig Avenue but another tie took my eye not too far away.

The FA Vase has always been a competition I have admired in that it gives sides at the lower scale of non-league football an opportunity to play in knock out football that could lead to the dream of playing at Wembley stadium under the famous arch in the quest for silverware. The fact that the tournament starts with 638 teams across England and Wales at levels 9 and 10 of English football shows it’s sheer size and competitiveness as a competition. Clubs at this end of the football spectrum massively rely on their communities whether that be through the magnificent volunteers who work at the club carrying out a variety of jobs to keep the club going to the fans who purchase food and drink along with their entrance fee. The players may well get paid but at best it covers expenses of travel,the game is played more for the joy of it than anything else along with the possibility of opportunities further up the non league ladder that might arise. Given there isn’t much of a difference between levels 9 and 10 in standard it really gives most clubs the hope that a cup run can could lead to the dream of following past and present heroes in playing at the 90,000 home of football. It’s a true fairy tale competition and with the FA Cup losing its credibility from years gone by and being devalued at the top it’s great to see that there is still romance from round one to the final in the Vase.

Up the road from Merseyside on the way back towards Manchester I found that Irlam FC were playing their 4^th round tie in the Vase at home to Cadbury Athletic. Doing some investigation on both clubs the tie became more intriguing to attend. Both Irlam and Cadbury had got to the 4^th round of the Vase for the first time ever, history had been made and history was going to be written for the winners. Irlam who play in the 9^th tier in the North West Counties Premier League were sat in lowly mid table however were impressing in the cups this season. Other than their exploits in the Vase the club successfully navigated through three rounds of the FA Cup shocking Prescott Cables from the level above them to make the 2^nd Qualifying Round,the furthest they have got in the worlds famous club cup competition. When looking up Irlam on twitter they were promoting the game as the biggest in their history, that was enough to lure me into a visit to Silver Street.

The visitors Cadbury as you’ll have seen share the same name with a famous confectionery company and that isn’t a coincidence. The club are from Birmingham and were formed and originally played at the recreation ground at the Cadbury factory in Bournville. As the ground lacked facilities this forced the club to move away to Kings Norton a mile and a half south of the city. The club adorn the confectionery colours of purple and white and the club badge contains the famous glasses of milk being poured from a height.

The journey from Liverpool was an easy one after valuable information from a friend. A short 35 minute train to Warrington and then a half hour bus ride took me to the suburban area of Irlam in the West of Manchester. The area looked quite working class with the ground appearing to be in a little council estate. The club get around 80-120 fans for league games but were hoping to get a big gate for this important tie and were hoping the community would turn up in numbers.

The club were bellowing out some tunes whilst I tucked into the mammoth pie, chips, peas and gravy bought at the food van. Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, Michael Jackson, whoever selected the music deserves credit! Whilst eating I did notice a few fans in Trafford FC and FC United of Manchester memorabilia so was nice to see that other fans from local non league teams had come down to lend their support to Irlam.

Upon entering Silver Street I ventured into the club house for a pre match beer to see the squad watching the Manchester United v Reading FA Cup game on the box. The squad looked a young one which made me wonder given we were down to the last 32 of the competition if the lack of experienced heads would be an issue in such a big tie however that concern was soon diminished.

Irlam playedsome neat intricate football in the early stages of the game and after a missed opportunity took the lead with through wonderful build up and then strike into the net from their right winger who was a constant threat on the ball with his pace, drive and trickery and he doubled Irlams lead shortly after. Cadbury looked to stamp their own mark on the game and missed a couple of good opportunities themselves, this was when I started to notice an annoying Cadbury supporter to my left.

Personally I feel that your behaviour at non league games following your team is a lot different to our character when following a professional football team in a big stadium environment. I voice my opinion when I feel it’s right at a non league game but I watch the game a bit more as a neutral and will always credit the opposition should they deserve it. However there was one Cadbury fan who thought he was in the away end at a Villa/Birmingham game. The Irlam players were called every name under the sun, as was the ref who was also called a nonce at one point. If he wasn’t abusing people he was barking orders at the team as though he was one of the managerial staff. “Drop off, push on, sit on the full back, hit the front man” the man barely stopped to breathe. The Cadbury players playing on our side of the pitch could hear him, I’m not sure if they were listening or not but it must have been a bit off putting for them. I’m all for getting behind your side but there are right ways of doing this. The man was drawing a lot of attention from the home supporters who shook their heads in disappointment at most of this mans actions which was topped off by finishing his beer and deciding to take a wazz up the nearest floodlight in front of everyone. On half time I mentioned the mans behaviour to club officials on my way back into the clubhouse but I felt they fell on deaf ears. Given Cadbury will play most games in and around the midlands this was a rare opportunity to venture out of their region so for a fan representing the club to act like that was disappointing.

The Cadbury fans behaviour first half drew me more to Irlam in a hope they could win the game and shut him up and a third goal before half time from a set piece scramble put them in a fantastic position. The game simply needed to be managed now and Irlam did a fantastic job second half of dictating the game, kept it tight early doors and with the game all but won added a fourth through a great individual goal by their striker.

I had a quick beer on full time in the club house before my long hour bus back to Manchester for my connecting train to Sheffield. The players emerged after getting washed and changed for drinks and pizza put on by the club to songs from the local fans about going to Wembley. There certainly was a feel good factor about the cup run, Irlam were into the last 16 of the competition for the first time and the fairy tale dream of playing, winning and following in the footsteps of historic players in walking up the steps to the royal box at Wembley to lift silverware was very much on.

Thanks to the TV Scheduling our romantic cup tie against a 4^th tier outfit was moved to a Friday night for BT Sports making it an absolute nightmare for Spurs fans from the south and other areas of the country to get up to Merseyside for the game. This was also the case for me from Sheffield. As we were only 4 days into the start of the year there was no way I was taking a half day from my new 25 days given to me at work so working a short lunch allowed me to get out at 17:00 and make the mad dash to the train station around the corner for the 17:11 to Liverpool.

I was taking a gamble as the train arrived into Lime Street at 19:33 if on time so the aim was to jump a cab over to the Wirral and hopefully only miss kick off. Things were going swimmingly, I managed to get two cans of lager and the train was hitting its stops on time until disaster at Liverpool South Parkway. Only one stop from Lime Street the train broke down because the doors wouldn’t close. 15 minutes later and we’d not moved leaving me cursing my head off in my mind, so close yet too far away to get off and get a cab as South Parkway is 40 minutes from Prenton Park. After some deliberating the driver decided to slowly drag the broken let down into Lime Street. A mad dash to the cab rank and I was away to Wirral via the Mersea tunnel.

As per when I get cabs in Liverpool the driver is either a red or blue and have mass opinions on their club, Spurs and football as a whole. This cabbie was a red and most of the conversation during my journey was taken up on the referee’s performance in the redmens 2-1 defeat to title rivals Man City the night before. Trying to tell him I didn’t see the game fell on deaf ears, so I had to endure the ranting although I did appreciate the fact he knew what missing the start of a game was like for a football fan and did a good job in getting me to the away end quickly.

Entering the ground was interesting. As the game had kicked off only one turnstile remained open and in my way of entry was a pissed up Spurs fan trying to argue his way in without a ticket. “I need to get my mate, he has my ticket, let me in to go and get it” is easily one of the worst lies heard in my lifetime, I’m surprised the man behind the glass window wasn’t laughing at him and getting security. Telling the drunkard to get out the way fell on deaf ears so giving my ticket to the turnstile operator and trying to bundle my way around the man lead to both of us stumbling through and the lout sprinting into the concourse and taking advantage of his good fortune.

Thankfully after train hell and a tosspot Spurs fan I’d only missed 15 minutes and after 5 minutes of finding my group of mates (there was no allocated seats) it was to the action. The first half consisted to our much changed line up keeping possession well without much threat in the final third although I had missed Sonny and Lucas one of one misses in my desperation getting to the ground. Prenton Park was packed to the rafters, no surprise given at present we are one of the top sides in the country. The fans were in full voice and doing their very best to make a big atmosphere to give their side some sort of edge. Any move that got Rovers into the final third rose the noise levels and of their few shots first half none troubled Gazzaniga in the net yet were responded to by over eager reactions by the home faithful as though these chances were near misses. The crowd were up for it hoping to see some sort of cup shock but they were silenced right on half time. A Kyle Walker-Peters strike was blocked, the ball ricochet out of the box, Surge Aurier did a great job to pressuring a Tranmere player off the ball before hitting an absolute rasper into the top right hand corner, leaving Scott Davies in the net a mere spectator.

Randomly one of our group spotted that ex England international full back Chris Powell was stood a few rows below us. After a half time beer I decided to investigate and found it was actually him.  After a quick shake of his hand we said we’d love a photo but didn’t want to bother him watching the game so said we’d come back down to him on full time for shot which he was in agreement with.

The late goal first half was huge and took the pressure off the side going into the half. 1-0 up but without being anything spectacular, this was not something that could be said for the next 45 minutes. From minute one the gulf in class told and Tranmere were blown away. Three minutes in Llorente had tapped in from a Son cross to give Rovers a mountain to climb. 7 minutes later Serge Aurier had his second of the night at it was game over. Spurs were out for blood, Sonny danced his way in for a fourth, Fernando Llorente completed his hat-trick with two in two minutes.

Pochettino then decided to give the paying crowd the chance to see a world class striker in Harry Kane. Whilst I appreciate the respect shown in doing this for the players and fans of Tranmere Rovers, from a Spurs fan prespective at 6-0 up, tie done and dusted…..I’d rather we not potentially risk injury to one of our key players. I was more than happy for him and Eriksen to sit on the bench and not move for the evening however H came on for the final 15 minutes and even then I said to my mates he’d still find a way of scoring in a dead game and unsurprisingly he popped up to score Spurs 7^th to complete the rout. It was really professional second half performance where even after a multitude of changes, we showed what depth and quality there is in the squad. Regardless of Tranmere being in the 4^th tier of English football, beating a professional football side 6-0 in 45 minutes is very impressive. Only downer being that Chris Powell decided to sod off 10 minutes before the game leaving me and the lads high and dry in the photo stakes, cheers Chrissy!

Our group decided as of the horrendous Friday evening kick off that we’d stay over in Liverpool and make a night of it. After walking our group the wrong way and receiving copious amount of abuse (I had no excuse, I’d been to Prenton Park earlier in the season ground hopping) we managed to find Rock City mersea rail and train it back into Lime Street. A quick cab and we were smashing into a curry and some beers on the famous Albert Dock before a couple of beers in the Smugglers Cove discussing the new ground and when we might be in it.

A great evening, cup shock potentially diverted, top Tottenham performance, introduction of youngsters from our academy and a lovely meal and beers in decent surrounding. Perfect way to start 2019 on the football front.