It's Not A Cup, It's A Trophy

It's the Wembley trail we once again step on as (deep breath) British Gas League Midlands Division side Rushall Olympic make the trip up the M6 to Seel Park.

Whilst Mossley's previous attempts this season at embarking on a cup run have been more knocked out than knock out, Pic are having a fantastic time in them. So much so that despite playing at home to a side from the same level in the Pyramid, Rushall's cup pedigree this season probably means that we go into the game as (albeit slight) underdogs.

Last week the Walsall based side knocked Hednesford out of the FA Cup, leaving them only 90 minutes away from being patronised by Mark Lawrenson and Alan Shearer on a Match of the Day cup special, sometime after midnight. Standing in their way way is York City, who we have our own murky FA Cup history with, and a difficult game at the Kit-Kat Stadium.

This match takes place next week and there could be the chance (or more likely wishful thinking) that Rushall will take things a bit easier than they normally would. But after hammering Leek Town midweek in the Staffordshire Senior Cup (their second Unibond Premier scalp in four days) with a 'weakened' team, I doubt that will be the case.

The Rushall side may contain one player who's visited Seel Park recently and whilst his name may not be ring any bells, what he did will. Back in January Gary Birch was the player who came off the bench for Telford and, with practically his only touch of the match, won the game for the Shropshire side by whacking the ball into the net with his arm. Instead of showing even the slightest hint of embarrassment at winning the game in such an illegal manner, he proceeded to celebrate it like he'd scored a 40 yard howitzer that had won a World Cup final. Any appearance this Saturday from him however depends on whether or not Telford (where he's on loan from) will allow him to become cup tied.

At this stage of the competition last season Mossley belied their early season form to thrash Lincoln United 5 - 1; a result that was the very definition a false dawn given the sheer dross that followed it - just two wins over the course of the next three months, with one of those being a scraped 1 - 0 victory over NWCL opposition. I have feeling though that, win or lose, we won't see a repeat this time round.

Prediction: As much as I want and hope that we'll win, I've the suspicion that we'll be making a midweek trip to the Midlands for a replay.