MATCH PREVIEW: Chesham United vs Chippenham Town | FA Trophy Second Round | Saturday 16th November 2024

Harry Minton previews The Bluebirds trip to Chesham United.

Cup action awaits the Bluebirds this weekend as they travel to Buckinghamshire to take on Chesham United in the second round of the FA Trophy.

The FA Trophy does provide a good opportunity for some of these teams in the non league to make a rare appearance at Wembley, so both these sides will be looking to progress past this round.

Especially as last season, we made it to the furthest point we have ever made in our history of the FA Trophy, reaching the fourth round.

Narrowly beating stubborn opposition in Basingstoke Town on penalties after a 1-1 draw at home, then being involved in an eight goal thriller at home to Gloucester City as we ran out 5-3 winners. And then our boys took National League side last season Bromley all the way to penalties on their home turf after a 1-1 draw, though the fairy tale ended there as the Ravens progressed all the way to the semi finals where they were eventually knocked out by Solihull Moors.

For Chesham, the furthest themselves have ever made it in this competition is also the fourth round, they made it to that stage back in the 1998/1999 season where the Generals got past Yeading in the second round after a replay, winning 4-0 at home.

They then travelled to Crawley Town in the next round and it was a 3-2 win for Chesham, before losing 2-0 at home to Hendon in the fourth round.

Last season, as a seventh tier side they only played two games, however they were filled with goals. The first opponents for Chesham were Enfield Town in the third qualifying round and the generals ran out 4-3 winners to qualify for the first round proper, where they were drawn away to Cray Wanderers.

After a remarkable 3-3 draw played out, Chesham were the unlucky ones on penalties losing 5-3 to Cray Wanderers.This game will be an exciting one as both teams are on decent form, us Bluebirds are on a three game unbeaten run at the moment with two wins and a draw. Seven goals scored and only one conceded across those three games as well, our most recent result being a comfortable 3-0 win at home to Eastbourne Borough who were top of the league coming into that game.

Meanwhile, Chesham are coming into this game having only lost three games out of their last fifteen in all competitions, the generals had a very good go in the fa cup where they actually made the first round proper, beating the likes of Yeovil Town 1-0 at home in the final qualifying round.

They played host to Lincoln City in the first round where the team who play at the Meadow could not do what Gary Horgan’s boys did a couple years ago and cause an upset as the Imps ran out 4-0 winners on the night.

Of course, this fixture has been played very recently in the league where we were leading 1-0 for a good majority of the game until the big turning point where Will Dawes got a second yellow card and the boys in blue were reduced to ten men. A late rally from the Generals seen them win by three goals to one in the end.

Listening to Gary Horgan’s post match interview after the win against Eastbourne, he said “coming into this game that it’s not about righting the wrongs, it’s about just playing our game and trying to get the win which has worked well for us in our recent league games”.

Come on the Bluebirds!!!