MORE BRILLIANT NON- LEAGUE CUP RUNS

The FA Cup begins with its extra preliminary round on August 7, with 348 teams dreaming big. Among them will be Sporting Bengal United, Baffins Milton Rovers and Leicester Nirvana – the latter accurately describing the outcome of last season’s final. With 14 rounds and 729 clubs in this season’s competition, here’s hoping there’ll be a few unlikely heroes to come. Chorley were the stars of last season’s competition, overcoming a lack of match action in the curtailed National League North to beat Wigan, Peterborough and the club officially known as Wayne Rooney’s Derby County – even if Wazza himself was absent, with the Rams’ first team unable to play because of COVID issues and subsequently replaced by a youthful line- up. Boreham Wood and Stockport also made it to the third round, as did eighth- tier Marine, giving everyone the amusement of seeing Jose Mourinho, Gareth Bale and Dele Alli forced to show their faces at a tiny non- league ground on a Sunday evening. Spurs won 5- 0, the spoilsports. This season, we hope to see Mo Salah at Pontefract Collieries, Edinson Cavani at Ramsbottom and Marcelo Bielsa bossing it at Maidenhead. Magic.