25 February 2008
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Brantham Athletic v Coundon Conservative
The FA Carlsberg Sunday Cup
Semi-Final
2pm, Sunday 16 March 2008
King's Marsh Stadium, AFC Sudbury FC
Click here for the fixture details
Winning club receives £1000



It has been a remarkable adventure for the players of Brantham Athletic in The FA Carlsberg Sunday Cup this season and now they remain only one game away from a trip to Anfield for the Final.

The club, who are based in a village in Suffolk and ply their trade in the Ipswich Licensed Trades Sunday League, are only in the competition for the first time and now face last year’s winners in Coundon Conservative at the Semi-Final stage.

They have home advantage and will be playing the game at AFC Sudbury’s King’s Marsh Stadium, but manager Stuart Ward revealed that it is still a surprise to everyone that the ‘Colts’ have progressed so far in a competition in which they had no experience.

They have done it in style so far too, notching up some impressive scorelines along the way.  They have hit six goals in two games, four goals in another two games before their last victory was a 2-1 win away at Magnet Tavern.

“We never expected to get as far as we have, so we’ve been taking each game as our own final and it’s really paid off,” revealed Ward.

“This is only our first season in the competition so we didn’t really know what to expect from it or what we were going to come up against, but it’s been the same through all of the rounds so far and we’ve just played our game and managed to progress.

“We have just taken it one step at a time and I don’t think anybody associated with the club thought we’d get this far, so it’s been a great achievement for everyone involved.

The club, initially Brantham Sunday Colts, were only reformed in 2004 after Ward had noticed the amount of footballing talent in the village that were playing for teams elsewhere and after an eventful few years which also saw the club become part of Brantham Athletic FC, they now sit on the cusp of possible Cup glory.

“If someone would have said four years ago when we reformed that we’d be in the Semi-Final of a national cup, they’d have been laughed at,” admitted Ward.

“Now we’re only one game away from Anfield and that would be fantastic for all of the players.

“In the last round, we played at Boston United and that was like a cup final to us, as a lot of the boys had never played at a ground like that so it would be out of this world if we could get to Anfield.”

Their opposition on Sunday could be a good yardstick for Ward’s team too, as Coundon lifted the Cup last year (left) in what was their first season in the competition too, so there may even be a case of history repeating itself.

However, Ward is not taking anything for granted ahead of Sunday’s match with the north-east side.

“We know this is going to be the hardest game that we’ve had so far,” he said.

“It’s unfortunate that they’re based a bit too far away to go and watch them up in the north-east though!”