FA Youth Cup 2024/25

[Royals and Racers]

Since mid August teams have taken part in the
Extra preliminary round
Preliminary round
1st round qualifying
2nd round qualifying
3rd round qualifying- taking place this week with 35 matches.
The next round is the 1st round proper and the Royals enter at this stage. The draw could be on Friday and the matches are to be played by Saturday 2nd November.
Eligible players for this season must have been born on or after 1st September 2006 and before 1st September 2009.
Reading City play away at FGR tonight, so it would be great if then won and we drew them in round 1.
Edit Reading City lost 3-0

[Royals and Racers]

AFC Dunstable v Reading

[Clyde1998]

AFC Dunstable v Reading

I make AFC Dunstable a Level 8 (Step 4) side - Southern League Division One Central. We should win that comfortably, but an absolute banana skin.

Their path so far has been:

• PR - Cranfield United away [Lvl 10] - won 2-1
• Q1 - AFC Rushden & Diamonds home [Lvl 8] - won 4-1
• Q2 - Dunstable Town away [Lvl 9] - drew 1-1 (won 4-2 on penalties)
• Q3 - Needham Market home [Lvl 6] - won 2-0

Bizarre Dunstable derby in the second qualifying round.

[Sutekh]

[Royals and Racers]

AFC Dunstable v Reading arranged for Wednesday 30th October KO 7.30pm
Creasey Park LU 6 1BB

[Royals and Racers]

Welland
Saint-Louis
Irish
Dove
Source
Duah
Bowdery
R Beacroft
George
Coke-Miles-Smith
Fuller-Thompson
SUBS
Sharlott
Agyekum
Kabza
Neptune
Martin-Grant
Bailey
Ofieno

[Royals and Racers]

HT 0-0
AFC Dunstable 0 Reading 1 Bowdery 60 mins
1-1 77 mins PEN
AFC Dunstable 2 Reading 1
F-T 2-1

[SCIAG]

Awful result. Didn't watch so can't comment on the performance.

Dunstable are in the Southern Division One Central, i.e. the eighth tier.

I'd got it into my head that we lost to eighth-tier Royston Town once but I think I'm getting confused, as far as I can tell we lost to Arsenal when we would have faced Royston in the next round in 2015. So I think this is our worst FA Youth Cup result of the modern era.

[Royals and Racers]

The morning after does little to erase what happened last evening. Spurred on by a good size vocal crowd AFC Dunstable were fully deserving of their ‘ giant killing ‘ tag. For the Royals Bowdery was MoM and i thought the tall defenders Dove and Duah were decent also. We also were not able to play our strongest side as the U 21’s play again on Friday and it’s FA cup the following day, which meant Harrison, Osho, Sackey and Spencer weren’t in the squad..
On nights like last night it raises the question if CAT 1 is sustainable ?
Swish coach, 6 officials named plus at least another 8 travelled. I hope it is but it just seems right now that it’s one big money pit !

[SCIAG]

The morning after does little to erase what happened last evening. Spurred on by a good size vocal crowd AFC Dunstable were fully deserving of their ‘ giant killing ‘ tag. For the Royals Bowdery was MoM and i thought the tall defenders Dove and Duah were decent also. We also were not able to play our strongest side as the U 21’s play again on Friday and it’s FA cup the following day, which meant Harrison, Osho, Sackey and Spencer weren’t in the squad..
On nights like last night it raises the question if CAT 1 is sustainable ?
Swish coach, 6 officials named plus at least another 8 travelled. I hope it is but it just seems right now that it’s one big money pit !

I've lost track of the ages of players so knowing that five players (including Garcia) were unavailable shines a different light on things. Think how well the 2006 side would have done without Henry, Pearce, Karacan, HRK and Church. Or the 2014 team without Kuhl, Kelly, Fosu, Stacey and Hyam.

Given that the academy has propped up the first team, which is ultimately its job (not winning the Youth Cup), I think its worth is difficult to question. The issue is whether we physically have the money to afford it without Dai.

[Clyde1998]

The morning after does little to erase what happened last evening. Spurred on by a good size vocal crowd AFC Dunstable were fully deserving of their ‘ giant killing ‘ tag. For the Royals Bowdery was MoM and i thought the tall defenders Dove and Duah were decent also. We also were not able to play our strongest side as the U 21’s play again on Friday and it’s FA cup the following day, which meant Harrison, Osho, Sackey and Spencer weren’t in the squad..
On nights like last night it raises the question if CAT 1 is sustainable ?
Swish coach, 6 officials named plus at least another 8 travelled. I hope it is but it just seems right now that it’s one big money pit !

I've lost track of the ages of players so knowing that five players (including Garcia) were unavailable shines a different light on things. Think how well the 2006 side would have done without Henry, Pearce, Karacan, HRK and Church. Or the 2014 team without Kuhl, Kelly, Fosu, Stacey and Hyam.

Given that the academy has propped up the first team, which is ultimately its job (not winning the Youth Cup), I think its worth is difficult to question. The issue is whether we physically have the money to afford it without Dai.

The last couple of years of U18 football has been concerning. Since returning to Category One last season, our U18s' record in the league has been Pld 32; W 6; D 4; L 22; GF 35; GA 90; Pts 22.

Some general questions:

1. How much of that is down to better U18 players being in the U21s and first team?
   How much is down to us selling certain better U18 players?
   How much is due to us losing coaches (including below U18s)?
   How much is down to not being able to bring in good coaches (including below U18s)?
   How much is due to not being able to sign players for (or before) U18 level?
   How much is simply due to us having a couple of seasons of weaker players coming through (which we would've had anyway)?
   How much will it impact us going forward?

[SCIAG]

All worthwhile questions.

I think ultimately the purpose of the Academy is to produce players for the first team (or, if you're a little more cynical, for sale). So if we're getting the likes of Garcia as genuine first team players then it doesn't matter what the U18 results are. Five current U18s have got on the pitch this season, and two (Ahmed and Garcia) were 16. The only other 16-year-olds we've used in the modern era are Peter Castle, Jordan Obita and Danny Loader.

We have lost a few players and doubtless relegation, the brief loss of Cat 1, and the general clusterfuck have impacted recruitment and retention. Difficult for us to say how well coached they are, although the sides don't seem as "fluent" as some past sides. But if Garcia, Barough, Ahmed and Spencer each make 20+ appearances then everything else becomes irrelevant.

[morganb]

Is there also a chance that the sides we are playing against have changed and/or improved over time therefore making our team seem worse?