It may only be the end of August but already Newcastle Blue Star are preparing for their third Emirates FA Cup encounter of the season. With victories over North Shields and North Ferriby, the Scotswood outfit will hope for further progress at the expense of another northern team.
The team in question is Hallam and with the Sheffield-based outfit having also won two matches to get this stage of the competition, they are well accustomed when it comes to early season knockout progress.
For Saturday’s visitors, they have managed to get the better of Lower Breck by two goals to one in the Extra Preliminary Round and that was subsequently followed up by a 2-0 win over Charnock Richard in the Preliminary Round just a couple of weeks later.
Both opponents operating at the same level as Hallam within the non-league pyramid – a level which in turn is the same that Newcastle Blue Star find themselves at and this provides us with an all-Step 5 clash at Scotswood this weekend.
Of course, it was Blue Star who were playing the role of giantkillers in the previous round of this magical cup competition. After a 1-1 home draw with Step 4 North Ferriby could not split the two sides, they did it all over again just 72 hours later.
This time, it was The Dransfield Stadium that had hosting rights for the cup clash after a stalemate at Scotswood a few days previous. This time, there was a winner on the night after an incredible extra-time comeback win from Marc Nash’s men.
A 4-2 win on the Tuesday in the FA Cup, but a 1-0 defeat at home to Easington Colliery in the FA Vase on the Saturday. A mixed bag in terms of knockout results, progress in the former but dumped out of the latter.
While both Blue Star and Hallam suffered league defeats in midweek. The former being edged out by a single goal at home to Shildon and the latter being beaten at Pickering Town by two goals to one - both teams will now look to have the ideal response to their respective reverses this Saturday.
For the 90 minutes that are soon to follow, any thoughts about moving up the table are put to one side. Now it is about making further progress in the greatest cup competition in the world and edging one step closer to being in the hat for the First Round proper.
Something which sets up this upcoming clash rather nicely. A warm welcome goes out to the visiting Hallam team and support and for those who lend their voice to the home team, make sure to bring the noise throughout.
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