The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON
Third Round Proper
Saturday 6 January 2007
Winning clubs will receive £40,000
Third Round Proper Draw - Click Here



Macclesfield Town's FA Cup draw away to Chelsea in Sunday's draw may revive memories of another Third Round tie in the 1960s.

The Silkmen were then playing in the Cheshire County League - they were still nearly 30 years away from making it into the Football League.

Victories against Third Division Stockport County (in a replay) and Northern League Spennymoor United in the 1967-68 season put them into the Third Round for the first time…and they were rewarded with a plum draw away to Fulham, then in the old First Division.

The part-timers went to Craven Cottage on 27 January 1968 as classic FA Cup underdogs, taking on a team that included former England captain Johnny Haynes.

On a wintry afternoon Taberner and Fidler scored as Macclesfield took a 2-1 lead in surreal fashion. Brian Fidler was famous for his crazy goal celebrations, when he would virtually run a lap of the pitch. Two years later he did it at Wembley as the Silkmen won the first FA Trophy Final against Telford.

Fulham's class told in the end 38 years ago. Allan "Sniffer" Clarke, later of Leeds United and England, notched a couple. Joe Gilroy and the maestro Haynes were also on target in a 4-2 win. But Macclesfield Town were on the footballing map.

Now the Cheshire club managed by Cup-winner Paul Ince travel to the same part of London for a battle at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge in the Third Round. Once again no one will expecting them to get a result.

(By David Barber, who stood at the Putney Bridge End for the Fulham v Macclesfield tie all those years ago.)