Sweet FA Trophy, quarter finals.

After Leyton Orient's late equaliser against Arsenal saved the damp squib that was the FA Cup 5th round last weekend, this weekend it's back to FA Trophy action, and we've reached the quarter final stage.

In my second round review I predicted that Darlington would win their tricky third round tie at Telford, only to lose to a much smaller team in the quarter finals.  Well, they did the first bit of that, with a 3-0 win at Telford, and now everything's lined up perfectly for the loss to the small team, with a home game against Salisbury City, currently two levels further down the non-league pyramid than Darlo.  Hopefully history won't fully repeat itself as the only other time Darlington played in the FA Trophy, they lost at the quarter final stage to Leek Town, back in 1990, check out the link for all the results of that years competition, and see how teams such as Chalfont St Peter, Erith & Belvedere and Shepshed Charterhouse did.

All 4 ties feature Conference teams taking on teams from further down the pyramid, 3rd round heroes Chasetown have a home match against Mansfield Town, which going by logos is a stag v stag contest

    
so hopefully it'll be as action packed as this (check out the sweet spin move from the darker one about 30 seconds in!).



Guiseley have a home game against Luton Town, but it's the other match up that offers the romance and intrigue for this round, a big North-East derby between Blyth Spartans and Gateshead. 

Local rivals from either side of Newcastle, and both inevitably forced to live in United's shadow, this is a good opportunity for them to get a share of the local limelight, with police escorted supporter's coach convoys and decorated shop fronts giving it a big game atmosphere in depressingly modern and charmingly quaint ways respectively. 

Added flavour comes from the fact that there will be twins on opposing sides, Stephen (Blyth) and Phil (Gateshead) Turnbull, who have worked their way down the North-East football ladder together over the years, going from Sunderland to Hartlepool to Gateshead before Stephen struck out on his own to go to Blyth.  They even live together, which should make for a fun Sunday at Chez Turnbull.

Prediction time, I got 6 out of 8 in round 3, not too shabby.  This time I'll go for Luton, Mansfield, Darlington and Blyth.

Edit:  Darlington didn't lose, winning 2-1 and then getting another result in the draw by avoiding Luton, instead we'll be playing Gateshead over two legs with a trip to Wembley at stake.  In the other semi final Luton will play Mansfield or Chasetown whose quarter final was postponed.