The qualifying rounds are over and now the clubs from Leagues 1 and 2 join the draw alongside the non-league teams who have made it this far. How will this year’s programme of matches compare with the First Round fifty years ago? The players taking part this weekend have got plenty to live up to.
The FA Cup First Round of November 21st, 1971 saw history made on an eventful weekend of football across Britain. While Southampton were getting beaten 8-0 in Division One by Everton (4 goals for Joe Royle and 3 for a young David Johnson) and a youngster called Kenny Dalglish was helping Celtic beat Falkirk 2-0, Bournemouth centre forward, Ted MacDougall, was hitting nine goals in an 11-0 victory over non-league Margate.
MacDougall had started his career at Liverpool, but never quite made the first team, and arrived at Bournemouth via York City. MacDougall’s goals had helped the Cherries to promotion from Division Four the previous season and his reputation had been steadily growing as he settled into life in Division Three. A week earlier, he had hit two goals to get a draw at Bradford City and keep Bournemouth top of the table. If that wasn’t enough to make Margate concerned, Bournemouth had won all nine of their home league games up to that point.
Nine was the order of the day for the man christened “MacDougoal” in the papers the next day. As well as possessing amazing goalscoring skills (the treble hat-trick took him to 28 for the season – still in November!!), MacDougall also showed that he wasn’t bad at delivering an understatement: “Things are going pretty well for me at the moment,” he told the Sunday People. He was even prepared to admit that his sixth goal was a bit “lucky”.
The player with the unenviable task of marking the man of the moment was Margate’s Dave Paton. After a while, Paton had gloomily remarked to MacDougall, “This is terrible… I might as well go off.” To his credit, MacDougall offered encouragement and added, “You’re playing me fairly and it’s not your fault.” Paton was discovering what many defenders have learned over the years that sometimes there really is nothing you can do when someone is having a good day. A fan, Betty Renz who had stood in the pouring rain to support Margate, obviously realised this as she wrote to the Daily Mirror of 25th November and praised her team, saying that they took their “humiliation manfully and with dignity” and that they “continued to play football to the bitter end.”
There were more good days in the pipeline for Ted MacDougall. He joined Manchester Utd in September 1972 and also played in the top flight for West Ham and Southampton and seven times for Scotland. He finished up with over 250 career goals.
As for Margate, the following week they only lost 1-0 to Hillingdon in the league. Bournemouth were held to a goalless draw at Barnsley. Obviously both teams had seen enough goals the previous weekend.
Meanwhile…
On the same afternoon that Ted MacDougall was breaking an FA Cup individual scoring record, Oxford City and Alvechurch were on their way to creating a new record for the most replays for a cup tie. Their 4th Round Qualifying tie was undergoing its fourth replay, ending in a goalless draw. The decisive match came the following Monday when Alvechurch finally won 1-0. By then the teams had played each other 6 times in 17 days, forming friendships along the way. As Alvechurch’s trainer, Reg Brassington, said, “We’re almost sorry it’s over.” Perhaps the victory was a poisoned chalice as the part-timers had to beg more time off work and try and recover to play Aldershot in the first round just two days later. They did their best, but were beaten 4-2.
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