Billingham Synthonia v Bideford
The FA Carlsberg Vase
Sixth Round Proper
Saturday 3 March 2007
£4,000 to each winning club

Bideford from North Devon face a 740 mile round trip to play Billingham Synthonia in the North East on Saturday in The FA Carlsberg Vase Sixth Round.

We spoke to Bideford secretary Kevin Tyrell as he prepared for the long journey...

Kevin, this is a really long journey so are you looking forward to it?
Yes we most certainly are! We have undertaken this route once before when we played Synthonia’s local rivals Billingham Town in the Vase in 2004.We won that tie 4-2 and went on to reach the Semi-Finals. We feel it is nice to travel all over the country and go to different grounds and see new faces.

What are your travel arrangements for this weekend?
We are going up by coach. It wasn’t feasible to travel by plane and then have a coach pick us up at the airport. So we are setting off on the road at 7.30am on Friday morning. The drivers reckon it will take about 10 hours and we should get there by tea-time, depending on traffic. Then we are staying overnight in a hotel before the game.

Will many of your supporters be able to travel?
There will be 20-30 fans travelling with the team. Then quite a few are driving up by car on the day. So hopefully we will have maybe 80 fans up there cheering us on.

What do you know about Billingham Synthonia?
We don’t know anything about them! Our manager has been trying to find out little bits and pieces, but that’s about all. We’ve been following their results and league position and no doubt they have done the same for us.

Obviously they must be a decent team to have reached this stage of The Vase so we will give them plenty of respect.

Your own team have had a few good results in The Vase so far?
Yes we have. We defeated Barwell 7-0 in the Fourth Round and we played exceptionally well that day. Then we had a hard game in the last round at VCD Athletic in Kent. They were a good side and we had to put on a battling performance to beat them 3-2.

Your club have had ambitious plans in the past to move up the pyramid. Are you a sleeping giant?
We are a little bit, yes. But we are restricted by our setting right down in the South West. That means that there would be a lot of financial strain just to move up to the next league, where we would have to travel all over the south of England and into the Midlands. It also costs us a lot of money to try to attract players to come and play for us due to our remote location.

Finally, your long trip to Billingham will be worth it if you win on Saturday?
Of course it will. But we know we are in for a very tough game.

If you'd like to head to the game this weekend and see Bideford take on Billingham, it's at the Synners' Central Avenue stadium, kick off at 3pm. Click here for directions