FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round
The Gore, Burnham
Admission: £8.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 143
After missing the opening two Saturdays of this year's FA Cup competition due to Charlton playing at home on the same days, I certainly wanted to take in a FA Cup fixture today with Charlton not playing. I chose a fixture at one of the few easily reachable grounds I had not yet visited, offering a potential giant killing with the lower ranked club at home.
The Gore is about a half hour walk from Burnham train station, via the rather quaint village centre, and after passing through a fair sized car park, the turnstile block open today was situated in one corner of the ground. Dominating the ground is a large modern building housing the bar, changing rooms and other facilities stretching about two thirds of the length closest to the entrance, with four rows of covered seating pitchside and is all very easy on the eye, with a brick base, a white back wall and roof for the seating, and a blue curved roof of the building itself. The building also has a tea bar window, closest to the ground entrance. On the opposite side, a much more old fashioned grey stand covers a flat standing area, and has some supporting pillars along the front. There is just hard standing around the rest of the pitch, with grey metal panel fencing behind both ends and tall trees lining the remaining length, giving the ground a rural feel to it. This is another ground that would appeal to plane spotters, as planes ascend over the ground. The 20 page programme is well designed and contains the important stats and reading material.
After some pretty lean years since their relegation from Step 3 football in 2015, suffering three relegations in four seasons, things are looking brighter for Burnham. Promoted back to the Step 5 Hellenic League Premier Division for this season, they have won one and lost three of their opening four league games, and to reach this stage of the FA Cup , they have beaten Tring Athletic 2-1, and then in midweek caused an upset, beating Southern League South Division outfit Slimbridge at home on penalties. Tiverton Town have made a strong start to their season in the Step 3 Southern League Premier Division South, winning three and drawing two of their opening six league games. Today would be Tiverton's first game in this season's FA Cup.
On mostly sunny and mild afternoon, this game had a surprising start, with Burnham, who had looked confident in the opening exchanges, took the lead with just three minutes on the clock. A quick break resulted in two Burnham players sprinting forward from the half way line against one defender, and after exchanging passes, it was Gavin James who eventually struck the ball low past the keeper. And they looked good value for their lead and it was somewhat against the run of play when Tiverton were awarded a penalty on 15 minutes for a handball. River Allen struck the ball into the bottom left corner, with the keeper diving the other way. There was not too much further attacking action for the rest of the half, as the game was even and it was hard to believe that two steps separated the two clubs in the football pyramid, as Burnham more than held their own.
One assumed that Tiverton would come out after the break fired up and play better, but the same pattern continued, and Burnham went back into the lead on the hour mark after a Tiverton player got in a tangle with the ball and was dispossessed, allowing Cameron Rohart-Brown to run forward, eventually poking the ball past the keeper from a slight angle. Tiverton came close a couple of times from corners, but still Burnham looked quite comfortable, until things started to go wrong for them from the 75 minute mark, when the ball was pumped high into the box, the keeper couldn't claim the ball, and it bounced off Jared Lewington and into the net. And two minutes later, a Burnham played was shown a second yellow card and then a red for bringing down a Tiverton player as he approached the penalty area. From the resultant free kick, right on the edge of the penalty area, Rivers drilled the ball low through the crowd of players, past the keeper who may have been slightly unsighted, and into the net. Down to ten men, it was always going to prove a tall order for Burnham to equalise and earn a midweek trip to Devon, and so it proved, as Tiverton saw the game out well.
So as would have been expected beforehand, it was Tiverton who progressed to the next round, but for long periods today it did not look likely, as it was impossible not to feel great sympathy for Burnham, who played ever so well, looked assured and organised, with little indication they were the lower league team, and certainly deserved something out of the game.
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