NEEDHAM Market have been given just what they wanted in the last 16 of the FA Vase - a home draw.Striker Damian Hilton stated at the weekend that the Bloomfields side fancied anyone at home in this competition and, after victory over Kirkley & Pakefield, on Saturday, the Marketmen will be at home again on Saturday, February 6, after yesterday's draw at Soho, although as yet their opponents are unknown.

Mike Bacon

NEEDHAM Market have been given just what they wanted in the last 16 of the FA Vase - a home draw.

Striker Damian Hilton stated at the weekend that the Bloomfields side fancied anyone at home in this competition and, after victory over Kirkley & Pakefield, on Saturday, the Marketmen will be at home again on Saturday, February 6, after yesterday's draw at Soho, although as yet their opponents are unknown.

That's because it will be either Brimsdown Rovers or Daventry Town who travel to Bloomfields, their fourth round game frozen off at the weekend.

“It's just an old cliche, but you don't get any easy draws in the last 16,” Needham general manager Mark Morsley said.

“If we show the same never-say-die attitude we showed on Saturday, then we will be fine. Because to me that sort of spirit is so important, and if you look at the likes of Sudbury and Lowestoft, who enjoyed FA Vase success, their attitudes were always spot on.”

Daventry will start as favourites to come to Suffolk.

They are currently top of the United Counties League Premier Division, having lost just one match all season.

They beat Leiston 4-3 at Victory Road after a titanic game and their credentials can therefore not be dismissed.

Brimsdown Rovers on the other hand are struggling in 16th place in the Spartan South Midlands League, although they do have games in hand.

The club is most famous for having David Beckham play in its youth sides.

Beckham joined Brimsdown as a 14-year-old, and played in their youth team for two years, becoming Under-15 Player of The Year in 1990. Six of that side went on to play professionally, including Micah Hyde, who played in the Premier League with Watford.

Meanwhile Needham are on a fine run of form and are proving to have real strength in depth.

On their bench at the weekend in the Vase win over Kirkley & Pakefield were a quintet of players who would easily grace most Ridgeons League Premier Division first XIs, including Danny Phillips, Danny Smy and Lewis Pemberton.

That strength in depth could be key to the season-long hopes of the Bloomfields side, who are the last Suffolk side standing in this year's FA Vase competition.

Plenty of fourth round ties were called off at the weekend, leaving a very much either/or fifth round draw.

Full FA Vase fifth round draw

St Ives v Stotfold or Shildon, New Mills or Witney v Norton & Stockton or Bootle, Bristol Manor or Whitehawk v Pickering or Marske, Long Buckby v Dawlish or Gresley, Willand Rovers or Causeway v Shortwood or Barwell, Royston or Tipton v Armthorpe Welfare or WROXHAM, NEEDHAM MARKET v Brimsdown or Daventry Town, Chertsey or Plymouth Parkway v Whitley Bay.

Matches to be played Saturday, February 6.