The draw for the first round of the FA Cup is being made this evening. Andy Warren looks at some intriguing possibilities for Ipswich Town.
Here we go again
Ah, the FA Cup. That beautiful bastion of hope for Ipswich Town.
They did win a game last season, at least, knocking Lincoln City out in a replay to secure passage through in the famous old trophy for the first time in a decade.
The ‘run’ soon ended, though, with Coventry knocking them out in round two.
Ipswich will enter in round one once again this season, with the draw being made this evening at 7.10pm, live on BT Sport.
Ipswich are ball No.24.
Banana skins
Along with 48 teams from Leagues One and Two, there are 32 non-league sides who will all be hoping to draw a club the size of Ipswich, Sunderland or Portsmouth.
The lowest of them comes from the ninth-tier of English football, in the form of Skelmersdale, while Cray Valley Paper Mills and South Shields have both reached round one from tier eight.
Other less glamorous names include Marine, Chorley, Tonbridge Angels, Brackley and Banbury.
The full list of side appears at the bottom of this article.
The old flames
The Blues have been on the wrong end of some miserable cup upsets in recent years.
Lincoln, who of course beat Ipswich on Saturday, will be in the hat again. So will Accrington, who disposed of them in 2019 and Portsmouth, Town’s conquerors in 2016.
Also in the hat will be Stevenage, who knocked Town out in the League Cup in both 2013 and 2016, and Crawley, who beat Ipswich in that competition in 2014.
Then there’s Exeter, who knocked Paul Hurst’s Town out of the Carabao Cup in 2018 and then ended the EFL Trophy run in January.
Local interest
Sadly there will be no Suffolk Derby in the first round.
Both Bury Town and Leiston did superbly to reach the Fourth Qualifying Round, only to see their journey end there.
Bury went 1-0 up before losing 2-1 to Banbury, while Leiston went down 3-2 to National League side Barnet.
There are some local-ish non-league sides in the hat, though. Canvey Island, King’s Lynn Town (more on them in a minute), Maldon & Tiptree and Concord Rangers have all made it through.
New faces
Every club in League One and League Two enter the competition at this stage, with the fourth tier bringing a number of sides the Blues have never faced.
The Blues have yet to battle Barrow, Harrogate Town, Forest Green Rovers, Salford City or Newport County.
An old face
Of all the non-league sides left in the hat, there’s one that jumps off the page.
King’s Lynn Town have climbed into the National League this season for the first time in their history, led by a man needing no introduction to Ipswich boss Paul Lambert.
That man is Ian Culverhouse, who was by Lambert’s side as assistant throughout the Scot’s time at Colchester, Norwich (where they won back-to-back promotions together) and then Aston Villa.
It was at Villa Park where their once glorious relationship came to an end, with Culverhouse and head of football operations Gary Karsa both sacked over accusations of training ground bullying.
There is certainly no love lost there. It would be fascinating to see how both men would handle a potential reunion.
Another old face
Another non-league side with Ipswich interest is Darlington, currently playing in National League North.
They’re managed by Alun Armstrong, he of the peroxide hair and then Inter Milan goals in the early 2000s.
They’ve played two, lost two so far in the league but have progressed well in the cup, with Armstrong stating his aim to reach round three.
They no longer player at the 25,000 capacity Darlington Arena, which remains standing and is used for pop concerts, though it has been suggested they could potentially return soon.
The full list
League One and League Two clubs: 1 Accrington Stanley; 2 AFC Wimbledon; 3 Barrow; 4 Blackpool; 5 Bolton Wanderers; 6 Bradford City; 7 Bristol Rovers; 8 Burton Albion; 9 Cambridge United; 10 Carlisle United; 11 Charlton Athletic; 12 Cheltenham Town; 13 Colchester United; 14 Crawley Town; 15 Crewe Alexandra; 16 Doncaster Rovers; 17 Exeter City; 18 Fleetwood Town; 19 Forest Green Rovers; 20 Gillingham; 21 Grimsby Town; 22 Harrogate Town; 23 Hull City; 24 Ipswich Town; 25 Leyton Orient; 26 Lincoln City; 27 Mansfield Town; 28 Milton Keynes Dons; 29 Morecambe; 30 Newport County; 31 Northampton Town; 32 Oldham Athletic; 33 Oxford United; 34 Peterborough United; 35 Plymouth Argyle; 36 Port Vale; 37 Portsmouth; 38 Rochdale; 39 Salford City; 40 Scunthorpe United; 41 Shrewsbury Town; 42 Southend United; 43 Stevenage; 44 Sunderland; 45 Swindon Town; 46 Tranmere Rovers; 47 Walsall; 48 Wigan Athletic
Non-league clubs: 49 Darlington; 50 Skelmersdale United; 51 Solihull Moors; 52 Banbury United; 53 South Shields; 54 Hartlepool United; 55 FC United of Manchester; 56 Brackley Town; 57 King’s Lynn Town; 58 Chesterfield; 59 AFC Fylde; 60 Marine; 61 Cray Valley Paper Mills; 62 Canvey Island; 63 Hayes & Yeading United; 64 Bromley; 65 Tonbridge Angels; 66 Hampton & Richmond Borough; 67 Woking; 68 Maldon & Tiptree; 69 Dagenham & Redbridge; 70 Barnet; 71 Oxford City; 72 Eastbourne Borough; 73 Eastleigh; 74 Torquay United; 75 Havant & Waterlooville; 76 Boreham Wood; 77 Yeovil Town; 78 Bishop’s Stortford or St Albans City; 79 Concord Rangers; 80 Chorley
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