So who do you want? A good draw in this will be different for different clubs, and personally im still struggling to get excited about it. For me its one of the 2 extremes. There are only 4 or 5 efl clubs id get excited about. Birmingham is the big one for me as its 1 of very few ive not seen latics play at. I dont think we ever played them on our way down from the premier league so presume they got promoted at the same time we were relagated one year. Other than that id be looking at charlton as another to tick off the 92, and then blackpool wigan and bolton as decent local aways. The rest in the efl are all pretty meh as ive done most of them. If we cant draw one of those 5, id be looking towards one of the minnows away. Curzon ashton being obvious as its on our doorstep.
Winnable home tie. Win, pocket the £45k prize money, then onto the 2nd round please and repeat this discussion of who to face there.
Obviously a good draw would differ a lot for each VNL club. For a BELT, just about any draw would be meh apart from possibly Birmingham City. For a club like ourselves or FGR who have played most of the L1 and L2 clubs, there might be a few more attractive ties and for a club like Wealdstone, who’ve never been in the EFl, possibly any league club drawn would be an attractive tie. In our situation, I think we have to consider whether we’d be looking more for an attractive tie in this round or a tie that makes it more possible to get to the 3rd round. For the former there are plenty of ties that could suffice: Birmingham City, Bolton Wanderers, Barnsley. Charlton Athletic, Reading, AFC Wimbledon and Stevenage are all decent draws either home or away, For the latter, it has to be someone like Harborough Town or Tonbridge Angels. The worst possible draw is someone like Wrexham, Shrewsbury Town or Wigan Athletic away.
I found it hilarious that carshalton were drawn away at Boreham Wood in the last round. As a BELT there aren’t any EFL clubs I would find enticing at this stage. Someone like Guiseley, Harborough or Kettering at home would be preferable
Ideally avoid a team from this league it's just boring. I'd be happy at home to anyone NLN/S and below to help chances of progression. R3 and a money spinner Vs a big premier league side is what we all ultimately want isn't it? If it's away, somewhere winnable and a short trip would be nice. Curzon Ashton away would be a right laugh just to have the novelty of outnumbering home fans about 4-1. Not something Dale could claim to be able to do very often. Nice friendly club though and a piece of piss to get to. Absolute banana skin though given how they're going this season. Accy or Morecambe away would be good too. Assume fairly winnable. Would be a good following from us and I have mates that support both. Stockport away. A likely battering on the pitch but a bonus that I can walk to it. Can be back home for dinner after skulking off at 3-0 down. Draws are rarely kind though so I'm bracing myself for someone we've played loads over the years and a trip miles away. Gillingham or Colchester away. No real money made due to a shite crowd and a humbling loss. Joy of the cup and all that.
Any EFL ground I haven't been to before would be good. If not a lower league side at home But we'll get Braintree away
Gillingham home or away I've asked people involved with the club in the past why we can't play Gillingham in a friendly like all the other Kent clubs do & was told that the Police won't allow it due to the expected trouble. Kent Police will go over the top and treat it like West Ham/Millwall
Away to a non-league side that I haven't visited before will do very nicely. Preferably Scarborough as, despite having spent a lot of time in that part of the world over the years, I've never seen a game there.
I'm hoping but fully expecting it will probably end up being Barnet or Forest Green away. I just don't want a team in our division. If we get a boring team from the league enough, fair enough, at least we're not playing them in the league.
Being an ex league side I've seen Barnet play most teams in leagues 1 and 2 so zero excitement. Hope we can get lucky get a home draw against crap opposition. Then get drawn away at someone depressing like Shrewsbury or Walsall in round 2 where are eternal dreams of getting a Premier league team remain in tatters for another year.
I had a dream last night that we got Harborough in the 1st round, Welling in the 2nd and Manchester City in the third. We lost 9-0
Bristol Rovers, Swindon or Cheltenham would guarantee a decent crowd but probably would prefer the softest tie possible and get a little run going.
Same here, we have the same situation with Reading. There was some pretty grim stuff back in the day, but obviously many are too young to realise the consequence of a cup draw. But the police will know, and the subsequent costs will far exceed any income. Anyway, what’s the odds?….. Lowest possible team at home, please…
