Away ties dominate FA Vase draw for local clubs
PLYMOUTH Parkway could face Clevedon twice in 11 days if they win their FA Vase third round clash this weekend, after the two clubs were paired together in the fourth round draw.
Parkway will progress if they beat Fareham Town at Bolitho Park – or Coach Road, Newton Abbot – on Sunday, December 27 and head back to Somerset on January 9 to contest the fourth round tie, with the two clubs also due to meet in the Toolstation Western League Premier Division on December 30.
Tavistock will face either Branscombe and Thrupp, or Bridgwater Town, if they can win their delayed third round clash away to Devon rivals Buckland Athletic on Boxing Day, while Falmouth Town will travel to United Services Portsmouth, who knocked out Millbrook in the third round on Saturday, if they can overcome Christchurch on Sunday.
However, there is a danger that the competition may be declared null and void with the Football Association announcing they are reviewing the competition with so many clubs in Tier Four.
That could also have an effect on Parkway’s clash with Fareham this weekend with so many of their players based in nearby Portsmouth and Gosport.
“Probably nine out of my regular 16 fall into that category,” manager Pete Stiles said. “I don’t know what’s going on.
“If they say you can’t use those players, then what’s the point in travelling all the way down to Plymouth if you’re losing 60 per-cent of your team? It’s ridiculous. I’m just going to sit here for a couple of days and see how it pans out.”
Stiles also joined a growing list of managers frustrated by the FA’s ruling that a match must be played within eight days of its scheduled date, something Parkway boss Lee Hobbs also disagrees with.
Stiles and his part-time team – if they are able to - will have to make a 326-mile round trip to play the game just two days after Christmas Day.
“Who wants to go down there on December 27? I don’t and I know my players don’t,” he said.
“I don’t want to go down there on a Sunday. Why the FA couldn’t have played it in January I don’t know. They’re just trying to get these games done.
“If it had been a normal season we’d have been at this stage of the FA Vase anyway, so why don’t they show a bit of common sense and roll it over until January?
“It’s absolutely ludicrous and it needs someone at the FA to have a bit of common sense for once and have a look at things.
“Does it really matter if we play Plymouth Parkway on December 27 or the first week in January? No, it doesn’t.
“These lads aren’t professional footballers being paid to play all year round. They want their time off as well. I just think it’s ridiculous.”
Hobbs said: “We’d go through because they’d be unable to fulfil the fixture and it is not an ideal way to go through.
“In all honesty, we just want the fixture, but I really don’t know if it will be on if their players aren’t allowed out of the area.”
As for Tavistock, manager Stuart Henderson said his team must take care of Buckland first before thinking of playing either Branscombe and Thrupp, or Bridgwater Town.
“It’s a winnable game – if we can get past Buckland. I don’t even know where Brimscombe is to be honest!
“They are the same level as us, in the Hellenic League, but we don’t know much about them to be honest.”