Yate Town vs Poole Town – Match Preview
Our FA Cup journey was ended last Saturday as we fell to a 2-0 defeat to Weston-Super-Mare at the Black Gold. We did perform very well against higher league opposition so we can have no complaints.
It’s more cup action this weekend as we travel to Yate Town in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Isuzu FA Trophy.
Clubs from the leagues immediately below the Football League had no realistic chance of playing in a Wembley Final before the FA Council decided to start an ‘FA Challenge Trophy’ competition in 1969. It was open to all non-Football League clubs registering professional players.
Macclesfield Town, then Northern Premier League champions, were the first Trophy winners and 28,000 saw them beat Telford United 2-0 at Wembley.
As well as Wembley Stadium, five Finals have been staged at Villa Park and one at Upton Park. Scarborough, Telford United and Woking lead the way with three Trophy wins each. Another 10 clubs have won it twice – Altrincham, Barrow, Enfield, Grays Athletic, Kingstonian, Macclesfield Town, Stafford Rangers, Stevenage Borough, Wycombe Wanderers and York City. The 2025 winners were Aldershot who beat Spennymoor Town 3-0.
Yate Town were promoted from Southern League South as champions last season. They won 26 of their 42 matches picking up a total of 88 points. They are currently in 18th place in the table (P10 W2 D3 L5 9 points) and have won all their points at home in front of an average attendance of 383.
The Bluebells come into the match on the back of a 2-1 home win over Plymouth Parkway, thanks to a very late winner from Oli Jenkins. The cub is managed by Darren Mullings who signed as a player from Salisbury in the autumn of 2022, he is a former schoolboy under 18 international and England College under 19 international. Following the departure of manager John Rendell in September 2023 Darren took temporary charge of the team being appointed permanently 6 weeks later and winning promotion in his first full season as manager of the club.
A regular between the sticks is Aaron Sainsbury, the 24-year-old stopper who joined the Bluebells in the summer of 2023. Sainsbury is an ex-Bristol City Pro having signed a contract in 2019 after being in the Bristol City Academy since a young age. He is currently still employed by the Championship outfit as a goalkeeping coach which involves him in coaching the Juniors all the way up to helping with the First Team. Aaron currently holds a UEFA B Coaching License. Aaron was the only ever present in the League last season.
We are playing well away from home with 2 wins (Bracknell & Plymouth Parkway) and a draw (Hungerford) from our 4 matches. We lost to Gosport Borough at this stage in last seasons FA Trophy. After the 1-1 home draw the match went straight to penalties which we lost 4-3.
We have every reason to feel confident about progressing to the next round but Yate have won two and drawn three of their five league matches at Lodge Road this season.
Enjoy the game
Neil Wellington.