Croydon FC are four games from Wembley as they set off tomorrow to play Team Solent, the University of Southampton team, in the fourth round of the FA Vase.
Dickson Gill: providing direction for Croydon FC in the FA Vase
The club has booked a coach for supporters, which will be leaving Croydon Arena at 10am (tickets £10 each). Check by calling 07754 101383 for availability.
Under club stalwart Dickson Gill, Croydon have a decent record for cup success. In this season’s FA Vase, they have had to battle their way through five rounds since early September to reach this stage of the competition, which is open to Step 5 to 7 clubs (which if you take the Premier League as level 1 of the league ladder, means that the Vase is for level 9 to 11).
There was a time when Croydon played at a higher level but, if they overcome Team Solent, this would be their best progress in the competition since 2005, when they became eligible to be in the Vase. The last time they were in the fourth round was in 2008-2009.
Previously, their best performance this decade, in 2012, saw progress to the third round of the FA Vase.
Croydon FC go into tomorrow’s match refreshed after a long-ish break over Christmas, their last game having been on December 17.
Team Solent is part of a wider sports club at the university that competes in 28 sports, and have been in good form recently, with two very convincing league wins over the Christmas period, netting nine goals and conceding just two.
The winning team tomorrow receives £1,500 in prize money, so that would mean good tips for the Croydon coach driver, unless that’s yet another job that chairman, manager and chief cook and bottle-washer Gill has taken on at the club.
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