The joy of local football coverage

AFC Fylde, Weston Super Mare, Norton United, Concord Rangers – names of football clubs that probably have you reaching for the atlas or searching an online map for their grounds. Those teams and more have their big moment this weekend, with the first round of the FA Cup putting them into the spotlight against teams usually many levels above them in football’s pecking order.

They’ll get national media exposure, BBC cameras at their grounds for our comprehensive FA Cup coverage, even their names read out by Charlotte Green during the classified football results on Radio 5 Live’s Sports Report. But these non-league clubs, and many more like them, are loyally covered each week by BBC Local Radio stations up and down the country through thick and (mostly) thin. They’re no strangers to BBC reporters and interviewers. You have to be a rather special kind of reporter to cover these clubs each week, though. No heated press boxes, little in the way of prawn sandwiches, player information sometimes reduced to simply “A. Triallist”. It’s great fun nevertheless.

Mind you, spare a thought for the commentator at a Solihull Moors v York City cup game a year or two ago. Asked to pick up some spare equipment from BBC Birmingham beforehand as the ground had no broadcast facilities, our intrepid BBC Radio York commentator had little idea of where to go. Taking a short cut he’d been told about through a nearby park, he didn’t realise that at that time of night there was only one gate open - the one he’d gone in through. He now couldn’t get out the other side. He eventually found his way to the ground, missed the kick-off, then both sets of equipment blew a fuse, he almost took out a spectator with the aerial attached to the kit, and ended up reporting the game on a mobile phone. The producer said it turned into a cracking programme, with more reaction on texts and tweets than she could have ever have hoped for.

As a BBC local radio station you are hoping the smaller clubs you cover make it through the long qualifying process to the first round proper. Take AFC Telford, who are bottom of the Vanarama Conference this season. Even so BBC Radio Shropshire does commentary on all their games, home and away. They’re 2-0 down at three-leagues-below-them Spennymoor Town in the 9oth minute of the fourth qualifying round, with prospects of being in that famous FA velvet pouch along with the likes of Coventry City and Sheffield United fading. Five mins of added time, and they conjure up two goals. Sports Editor Nick Southall’s joyous commentary is here (listen in the clip above). The good news is Telford went on to win the replay 3-nil. The less good news is that their reward wasn’t a glamour away match at Bramall Lane… instead they go to Basingstoke Town.

Part of the charm of covering these clubs is their family feel. East Thurrock United (is there a West Thurrock United, I wonder?) who play in the Isthmian League Premier Division and are drawn away at League 2’s Hartlepool United take it to extremes. John Coventry is their manager. His wife is the treasurer. His eldest daughter runs the website. His youngest daughter runs the youth development work, with (you’ve guessed it) his son-in -law. Not to be outdone, John’s son is assistant manager in charge of the reserves. A lovely family affair, and who wouldn’t deny them a famous FA Cup win or two?

Everyone on BBC Local Radio gets involved with their teams. Carla George is breakfast show presenter at BBC Radio Lincolnshire and decided to adopt Gainsborough Trinity as her team, while their other breakfast presenter Scott Dalton is a devoted Boston United fan. Club mascot Fergal the Shark has visited the studios, she’s been to quite a few home games, and even travelled in the team bus to Gateshead in October for their fourth qualifying round tie.She’s constantly updating fans via social media, even when the team coach broke down, but sadly her efforts came to nothing as Trinity lost 1-nil.

At least she got to sit in the press box, something that eluded Richard Hoskin at BBC Radio Bristol as he attempted to cover the Dorchester v Bristol Rovers qualifying round tie recently. The press box was out of use as the local police wanted to use it. Presumably the view was better? Thankfully the commentary team were able to sit in seats underneath it, and had the foresight to bring long cables to plug their equipment into.

So let’s tip our bobble hats to those local radio reporters who will bring the passion and excitement of their local teams being in FA Cup ties to their listeners this weekend, safe in the knowledge that win or lose they’ll be back covering them next weekend. Provided, that is, if they can find the ground and the police aren’t sitting in their seats...

Charles Runcie is Head of Sport, BBC English Regions

This autumn, the FA Cup is returning to BBC Television with more coverage than ever before, to celebrate this, the famous old trophy is going on tour, visiting five regions across five days, beginning in the North East on Monday 3 November and ending in the North West on Friday 7 November - find out more on the Media Centre website.