Tadley Calleva - The Magic Of The FA Cup!
The destination for our latest Proper Football 'On The Road' club visits was Tadley Calleva, who reside in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South at Step 5 of Non-League football, for their huge FA Cup 3rd qualifying round match against Dartford FC, who play 2 levels higher in the Isthmian Premier League and currently sit top.
After looking at the draw for this round of the world's oldest and most famous domestic cup competition, this fixture looked to have the potential for an FA Cup upset.
Tadley Calleva, who started in the extra preliminary round back in early August, are based in Tadley, Hampshire, about 8 miles north of Basingstoke, and the club's name, Calleva, comes from the nearby Roman Town of Calleva Atrebatum, based just outside Silchester; hence why the club have adopted the name of 'The Romans'
Their record run in the FA Cup this season has seen them come through 3 rounds so far, plus a replay.
Extra Preliminary Round
Tadley Calleva (Tier 9) 2–1 Bemerton Heath Harlequins (9)
Preliminary Round
Hamble Club (9) 0–0 Tadley Calleva (9)
Preliminary Round Replay
Tadley Calleva (9) 3–1 Hamble Club (9)
First Qualifying Round
Tadley Calleva (9) 3–1 Laverstock & Ford (9)
Second Qualifying Round
Bishop's Cleeve (8) 0–1 Tadley Calleva (9)
Before the match, we had a few pints in a lovely little pub called The Pelican and then made the short walk down to Barlows Park, the venue for today's match and Tadley's home ground since it opened in 2007.
After receiving a warm welcome at the turnstiles and paying just £8 to get in and picking up a programme for a quid, you could sense a real buzz about the place!
The ground was filling up nicely with what looked like the whole community of Tadley in attendance, along with a great turnout from Dartford supporters as well.
The excellent clubhouse was doing a roaring trade and the fanzone was full of supporters and families enjoying a few pre-match pints and food from the kiosk.
We made sure to try the limited edition Guinness & beef pie, which was absolutely banging!
Kick-off
The ground was packed, and just as we plotted up down the opposite end of the pitch to find a good vantage point, our hopes of witnessing another big cup upset following on from watching Cirencester Town knock out Farnham Town last week were quickly thwarted as Dartford took an early lead in just the 3rd minute!
Dartford had a couple of more good chances, but then the Romans started to grow into the game; a free kick from outside of the box narrowly went wide! Then, moments later, another free kick from an almost identical position saw the Darts keeper parry the ball straight into the path of the Tadley forward, who duly scored, only to see the assistant ref raise his flag for offside!
The game was evenly poised going into the second half, and then the home side seemed to go up a level and were winning all the duals over the pitch and really started to get on the front foot in search of an equaliser!
Penalty!
In the 64th minute, Tadley were awarded a penalty, but the away keeper dived the right way and pulled off a wonderful save. We really thought this would be a nail in the coffin for Tadley, BUT how wrong could we have been, as they didn't sulk and kept their heads up and continued piling on the pressure! At this point I bizarrely decided to stick £5 on The Romans to win at 14/1 😂🤦🏻♂️, but we just had the feeling it was only a matter of time before they scored, and they did just that in the 76th minute after some nice wing play and a wonderful first-time one-touch finish!
Off the Bar!
In the 84th minute, Tadley were inches away from a winner when a header smashed off the bar!
With 3 minutes to play, a well-delivered free kick saw Tadley win the first header, which was nodded down into the path of the forward who headed into the net to set off wild scenes of celebration and a deserved lead!
Credit to Dartford, though, who still created a late chance, but a wonderful stop from the young Tadley keeper kept them at bay and saw the Romans through to the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup for the first time in their history!
The referee blew for full-time, which was the signal for a well-mannered pitch invasion by loads of kids who embraced their heroes, which for a moment rekindled memories of watching Hereford United beating Newcastle back in 1972!
After the game, we managed to catch up with one of Tadley's victorious players, Brad Passfield.
We also had a chat with one of the coaching staff, Michael Buck, who told us what this means for the club.
The players re-emerged from the dressing room and joined the fans once again to celebrate a famous day for the club, which also saw a record attendance of 898!
All eyes will now be on the fourth round draw, and we sincerely hope the Romans get a plum tie and hopefully advance to the first round proper!
All we can say is the magic of the FA Cup is still alive and kicking, and we wish Tadley Calleva all the best for the rest of the season, a fantastic club who fully deserve their moment in the headlines!
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