Saturday's Opponents: Dinnington Town

Cup Month: Chapter Five takes us over the Pennines and into the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham for an FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round away tie at Dinnington Town.

Just to give you an idea of where we're heading geographically, if you draw a triangle between Sheffield, Rotherham and Worksop, then Dinnington would be roughly in the middle. The place itself was originally a small farming community but began to grow rapidly after Dinnington Colliery was opened in 1905 and again post-World War Two as it was increasingly used as a commute to and from the three main cities mentioned before.

The local community was devastated by the closure of Dinnington Colliery in 1992; the building of a business park in its place has gone some way to leading a recovery.

Dinnington Town FC have only existed since the year 2000, but that doesn't mean to say that the club is only seven years old. Far from it. The name "Dinnington Town" is the sixth incarnation of the club that originally started out as Dinnington Main in 1908; they have been known as Dinnington Colliery, Dinnington Main Colliery, Dinnington Athletic and then Dinnington Colliery again before they folded in 1985.

DTFC play at the Dinnington Resource Centre which has undergone some recent upgrades to the changing rooms, players dugouts and floodlighting; it looks like a tidy little ground. They currently play in the Northern Counties East League Division One, which is the same level of the football pyramid as Cheadle Town, so it should be an even contest. i.e anything could happen! However, Dinnington Town are no mugs.

They had to start their FA Cup campaign in the Extra Preliminary Round at home to fierce local rivals Maltby Main; in front of a crowd of 602 (the largest match attendance in that round) they came out 2-1 winners. They then went to Rossendale United of Unibond League Division One (some two rungs above them in the pyramid) for the Preliminary Round and came away with a 2-0 win. They earned their tie against Cheadle after drawing with Penrith at home in a 2-2 draw and then winning 2-1 away in the replay.

For some reason it seems to have been a long week since our Vase defeat to Ashton Town, a defeat which could be quickly forgotten if we manage to come away from South Yorkshire with a win and the 13th of October to look forward to. To be honest we never expected to get this far, so this has been a real bonus...but we feel as though we've got one more round in us yet!!

We're carrying the flag for the NWCFL. Come on Cheadle!!!