Tipton Town hit FA Cup jackpot
Thursday 28th October 2010, 11:29AM BST.
Non-league Tipton Town struck the FA Cup jackpot when they clinched a maiden appearance in the first round proper on an historic night for the town, writes Steve Madeley.
The Midland Football Alliance outfit defeated the world’s oldest club, Sheffield FC, in front of a record crowd of 1,429 at Tipton Sports Academy to claim a further £12,000 in prize money.
And John Hill’s side, who had already scooped £17,250 for reaching the fourth qualifying round, now travel to League One side Carlisle United in the first round on November 6.
Commercial manager Dean Pearson said: “It is still sinking in. Playing in the first round is a fantastic opportunity for us and the funds that we will receive from getting through to the next round will give a club like ours a very good financial base for the next few seasons.
“What we want to do now is get some of the fans who were at the game last night to keep coming to support us. If we could do that it would be fantastic.
“We had earned £17,250 up to this point and there is another £12,000 from this. But we haven’t even taken gate receipts into account.
“That is just pure prize money. In the current economic climate it’s very difficult to get funding in place so this is an absolute God-send for us.
“The money will be put back into the club because it’s absolutely vital that we have money to pay for pitch fees and for transport to matches and all that sort of stuff.
“It means it isn’t quite so difficult to keep the club going. If we get promoted there will be extra costs associated with that so this will help us hugely.”
The 62-year-old club clinched the trip to Brunton Park by beating Sheffield 2-0 in the fourth qualifying round replay with goals from winger Eric Bowen and striker Danny Campbell. The sides had drawn the original tie 2-2 at Sheffield on Saturday.
The crowd at Tipton Sports Academy doubled the previous record attendance for the club, who are chasing promotion from the Midland Alliance and have been beaten just once in 15 league games this season.
And Tipton’s most famous son, Steve Bull, today gave his backing to the class of 2010.
“I drive past the ground regularly and it is a fantastic set-up there,” said the former Wolves and England striker, who was known as the Tipton Terror during his goal-laden years at Molineux. “I have been following Tipton’s progress and this is a great result for the team and the town.
“I played for Tipton from 14 until I left for Albion at 19 and the club is close to my heart. What I want now is a draw at Carlisle and a replay back at Tipton. I might be able to get to the game then – if I can get a ticket!”
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Well done to Tipton Town! The whole Black Country should get behind em.
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football fans of the black country unite.
baggies ,wulfs and saddlers salute you.
well done.
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Bob Marley… Satisfy My Soul and 3 Little Birds lol ‘Don’t worry about a thing cos’ every little thing gonna be alright’… what a night! Get in – tremendous achievement by the whole club. Proud beyond belief… a little club with a massive heart n soul.
One Love Bonky and Bill and the whole club
:-)
Bob Marley for eva! lol X
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Well done ALL fans unite & salute Tipton Town Fc
Brilliant & the finances keep the club going its just fantastic for football
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The lads were different class last night. Cheers for all the support…Hopefully more and more will come and watch our league games and kick the club on up the pyramid
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well done tipton, i went last night had a great time in a great atmosphere. im a stourbridge fan and enjoyed a great cup run last season, it was great to be there last night on a fantastic occasion.
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May pop down from Coseley and watch the odd match. Haven’t seen then for a while. The last time was Chasewater away I think! One Nobby Clark!
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well done Tipton Town, brilliant stuff. Making the Black country proud, good look at carlisle… Hope you cause a major upset. From a baggie, best of of luck. (echo the comment, black country should unite- i.e. wolves, walsall, wba.)
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I was there last night and the team were fantastic. However i feel really let down by the Tipton Town club officials who should hold their heads in shame. I arrived at the ground in plenty of time well before 7pm and because i was in my wheelchair they just ignored me. I was in the queue to get in yet was told to move to another queue because of my disability, and by the time i finally got in the ground i had no chance of seeing the action. When i complained to a steward it fell on death ears and it was only because of a few decent fans that i managed to wheel myself to the front barrier. These club officials should hold their heads in shame as they only seem bothered about the £12,000 that they got from last night’s win. Surely after genearting over £30,000 form this season’s FA Cup alone then they could hold some back to help the locals and get some good publicity. Even now i see that they have passed the buck on to Carlisle for selling the tickets for the next round. Surely the club can now afford to pay someone part time to sell tickets on their behalf rather than force us to pay for a phone-call to Carlisle and also a booking fee? The club only seem interested with the amount of money that is coming into their own back pockets. RIP Tipton Town
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In a reply to the above… sympathise with your disability Colin but your comment is totally unjust and downright rubbish… bordering on pathetic!
You don’t need tickets for Carlisle you can pay on the gate… you can purchase a ticket if you like via Carlisle’s web site at a £2 reduction – they were happy to help with on-line availbility of tickets – Tipton were happy to let them help. Book through them and save yourself £2.
As a very long tome fan of the club your comments are totally un-just.
Hope to see you down more regular then just the big glory nights.
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In reply to Gaza above i feel we must agree to disagree. The point i am trying to make is that whatever way i go about getting a ticket for the next round i still have to pay £12-go through Carlisle and there is the booking/card fee that they as a club insist on adding on. Or if i go up and pay on the day then the price goes up to £12 anyway. I don’t see why Tipton Town can not as a club can’t get the tickets posted to them and be sold through them rather than via Carlisle. The way i see it, it’s just penny pinching by Tipton as they are just passing the buck on to someone else and it sickens me to see this especially after all the bragging in recent days that they have won £30k from the cup run so far. I also notice that Carlisle are on charging wheelchair users on £3 for this fixture, but yet again this goes unnoticed by Tipton Town FC and to me it’s blatent discrimination against the disabled.
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Bragging!!!… lol…oh well… why don’t you offer to organise this on behalf of the club? You’d better get a move on though we’ve got two league games to organise stuff for before we play another ‘glory game’. Perhaps you should come along to Friar Lane over in Leicester tomorrow or pop down next Wednesday when we’re at home and you can discuss it with the board then. We’re always interested in supporters comments. You talk as if we’re set up like a pro club… we’re not… but we try our very best. So sorry you feel so disappointed in Tipton’s efforts.
If we got crowds of £1,500 every bloody game we’d be at a lot higher standard… but we don’t … our regular crowd is about 100…come down then you’ll have no problem with access Colin. Descrimination against the disabled… what a load of garbage!
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I tell you what Colin – you come along to Friar Lane and come down next Wednesday and I’ll buy you a ticket for Carlisle how’s that?
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Message to Colin Richardson
Hi Colin,
As the Commercial Manager I am genuinely concerned regarding your comments. I would like to offer you free entry to Wednesday’s home game in order to meet with you to discuss your feedback and clarify why some points you have made are not accurate.
If you are unable to meet on Wednesday please feel to call me, my contact details are on the Tipton Town website.
Regards
Dean
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As a fan of tipton who attends every game and who also suffers from arthritus. I find that all of the volunteers yes volunteers at tipton are always available to help. If you COLIN would have contacted any of the volunteers listed on the web site to let them know you needed help – you would have recieved help from any of them. As i have never seen you at any home or away game – i agree with the gentleman above that you must be a glory hunter!!!!
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Dean, Well done to all at Tipton Town from everyone at Bridgnorth Town. I was there on Wednesday along with 3 fellow committee members are we were fully behind your team. As a fellow MFA club it looks good not just on your club but also the league as a whole because of the extra publicity. Well done for Wednesday night and good luck in the next round, even if the result goes against you just enjoy your big day out. Obviously we would love to travel to Carlisle to support you again but i hope you understand that we at Bridgnorth have a home league game against Coalville the same day.
Also on a sidenote as a committee member at Bridgnorth i know how hard club members work on normal matchdays let alone on a night like this when the gate was about 20 times as big as normal. From my point of view i thought you handled the night very well and everything went smoothly. Look forward to speaking to you when we meet in December.
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I have been involved at Tipton for around 8 years and it makes me laugh when you get people writing on pages like this who have not got a clue how a small non league club like Tipton runs, i just hope colin takes the club up on there offer on wednesay night so he can understand football at this level a little more .
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