Lancashire mill-town club reach FA Cup first round for first time in 41 years

A Northern Premier League club from a Lancashire mill town have reached the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time since 1985 after beating a National League North side 2-1 in the fourth qualifying round on Saturday, on a pitch the referee inspected twice in the rain before deciding it was playable.

The club, who sit 11th in the seventh tier and whose players include a plumber, a maths teacher and two members of the local fire service, were 1-0 down at half-time against opponents two divisions above them. They equalised through their captain, Lee Butterworth, from a corner on 61 minutes, and won it 12 minutes from time when the 18-year-old substitute Kian Oduya ran on to a long clearance and chipped the goalkeeper.

The crowd of 1,874 was the ground’s biggest since a league match in 2009 and included about 400 supporters who had bought tickets online in the week, something the club had not offered before. Volunteers served 600 pies and ran out of programmes before kick-off.

“I have been here since I was a boy and I have watched us lose in this round about six times,” said the club’s chairman, Harold Pickup, 74, who has run the club with his wife since 1998. “When the second one went in I did not know what to do with myself, so I went and stood in the tea bar.”

The manager, Steve Molyneux, who combines the job with running a joinery business, said the pitch had been “our 12th man, and I say that with no shame at all”. The ground, which sits on the edge of the Pennines, has a slope of nearly two metres from one corner flag to the other, and the visiting manager said afterwards that his players had “spent the second half running uphill into a wind, and I do not mean that as an excuse, I mean it literally”.

The first round draw takes place on Monday evening and the club will be one of 32 non-league sides in it, alongside the 48 clubs from League One and League Two. The prize money for winning on Saturday was £37,500, more than the club’s annual playing budget. A home tie against an EFL club would be worth a further £100,000 in gate receipts and prize money, and the club has already spoken to the local council about temporary seating.

Oduya, who joined from a Sunday league team in Bolton in the summer and works at a supermarket, was asked who he would like in the draw. “Anyone with a big stadium,” he said. “I want to see what it looks like.”