Every season this fabled, world-famed cup competition writes new stories that have us trans-fixed. After five games in this season’s Emirates FA Cup competition Brackley Town find themselves in the cup limelight again with global media attention ahead of a big second round tie as one of only eight non-league sides remaining in the competition. Having travelled the length and breadth of the country winning at Truro City, overcoming an excellent Ramsgate side and then Hartlepool United in a replay, Gavin Cowan’s side beat National League Braintree Town in a penalty shoot-out and now Brackley Town’s next step in this season’s FA Cup is a second round tie at EFL 1 side Stockport County.

And we have history …
While they have never met before in the FA Cup, perhaps surprisingly the two clubs have met on plenty of occasions previously including famously four times in the FA Trophy! The first ever meeting was in the league and came in the 2013-14 season, Saints winning on 14 December by 2-0 at Edgeley Park, Steve Diggin and Owen Story the scorers to take Jon Brady’s side top of the Skrill Conference North table.

Over the years there have been many encounters and an impressive Saints’ record so much so that County supporters consider Brackley among their bogey teams. A six goal thriller in August 2016 stands out. Matt Lowe, Shane Byrne and Gaz Dean played in Saints’ 4-2 win at Stockport, Lee Ndlovu (twice), Gaz Dean and Alex Gudger were the scorers that day, Dean’s headed goal especially memorable.

In 2017 Kevin Wilkin’s side needed a replay to get past The Hatters in the FA Trophy Round 2. Diggin scored in a 1-1 draw at Edgeley Park before Jimmy Armson and Glenn Walker struck the goals to take Saints to the next round, eventually losing at York City in the quarter final. Little did anyone know that Wembley glory awaited just around the corner for this team and in the following season’s FA Trophy campaign they again met Stockport County, this time at the quarter final stage. Again a replay was needed after a draw at Stockport, Ndlovu the scorer that day, before Aaron Williams and a Shane Byrne stunner sent Saints through to meet Wealdstone in a classic two-legged semi-final that saw arguably the two best back-to-back performances by men in a Brackley shirt guiding the team to a Wembley final and drama and memories that no supporter will ever forget.

The teams last met in the 2018-19 season when Brackley drew at Edgeley Park in November and won in March at St James Park, Lee Ndlovu scoring in both matches.

Brackley have reached the second round of the FA Cup on three previous occasions. The first time came in 2014 losing 3-2 at Macclesfield having beaten Peter Taylor’s EFL 1 Gillingham in the first round through Glenn Walker’s strike in a SJP replay. The second occasion was another away tie in 2016, this time at Blackpool going down 1-0 again having beaten the late Justin Edinburgh’s Gillingham in a replay, this time immortalised by Jimmy Armson’s outrageous hat-trick. The third occasion came during the pandemic, a behind closed doors Friday night BBC TV live fixture at Tranmere Rovers in 2021 and another tight 1-0 defeat.

A brief history lesson reminds us of The Hatters’ past glories. Established in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they became Stockport County in 1890, the year of Brackley Town’s founding. They took up residence at Edgeley Park in 1902. In the 1990’s they spent five seasons in the then League Division One (now The Championship) and reached the semi-finals of the League Cup. In 1997-98 they finished 8th, a year in which Nottingham Forest were champions. As recently as 2009-10 County competed in what was called League Division One (ie now EFL 1), a season in which Norwich City and Leeds United were promoted and County were relegated. Further relegations took Stockport to Step 6 by 2012-13 and regular fixtures with newly promoted Brackley Town.

Six seasons at Step 6 were followed by three in the National League and promotion back to the Football League as champions in 2022. After a fourth placed finish in EFL 2 in their first season back, Dave Challinor’s Hatters won EFL 2 in 2022-23 to reach EFL 1 where they currently sit in the top four after a strong start to their season, second top scorers behind Wycombe Wanderers and on a three-game winning streak having beaten Bolton Wanderers, Wrexham and Burton Albion by an aggregate of 9-0.

Stockport’s recent FA Cup record saw The Hatters go out last season in a second round replay to Aldershot Town and County have only once reached beyond the third round, that was in 2001 eventually losing against Tottenham Hotspur.

Nobody could accuse Saints of taking the easy road to cup glory this season with trips to Cornwall and Durham and yet another second round away draw taking the team and strong loyal supporters on the road to Greater Manchester. With an injury crisis of proportions rarely seen everything is stacked against the underdogs. But football throws up surprises and nobody should be surprised if the Sunday morning newspapers are full of headlines from Edgeley Park.

Saturday presents another big cup occasion, writes another chapter in the story of meetings between The Saints and The Hatters and sets up Gavin Cowan’s men with the chance to create history and take Brackley Town into virgin territory of the third round of the FA Cup where they will play …

TICKETS:
Away tickets are on sale now from Stockport County's website. Click here:
£10 for Adults.
£5 for Concessions. (65 and over, Students, Disabled, U18)

Safe travels to all Saints supporters making the trip.

LIVE COMMENTARY AND UPDATES
If you cannot get to the game, our media team will be providing full match commentary from 2.55pm, this is available on Mixlr and 3Bs Radio.

Full match updates will also be on our X (Twitter) feed.