It's a good job that The Linnets website has been recently moved to a new, more powerful server. The more observant visitors to the site might have noticed the visitor count shoot up over the last couple of days. Under normal circumstances we can normally enjoy around 30-40 visits to this site per day, but over the last two days, since the FA Cup match against Bristol Rovers resulted in a 0-0 draw, the site has been seeing in excess of 200 hits per day.

The club history, information, and direction pages have been more popular than normal (the directions page has been viewed 50 times over the last two days). One can only assume that most of these are from Bristol Rovers fans who are intending to make the journey up to Widnes for the replay.

Runcorn are preparing for the very first FA Cup match (non-qualifier) to ever be played at the Halton Stadium. It's not yet clear how many fans Bristol Rovers will be sending, but at least one side of the Halton Stadium will be open, and fans will be segregated. Prices will remain at the normal £7 per adult, and £3.50 for concessions (please note that scratch card special offers are not applicable for this match, since it is not a league game).

As far as publicising the game, the Everton Reserves match on the 19th will be leafletted, and there will be publicity at our home match on the 20th. In addition to this all the local press, radio, and TV stations have been contacted, and have agreed to publicise the match, to varying degrees. What the media really like is a "story", and locally we are up against Vauxhall Motors for column inches/airtime (they have a few of things going for them in this respect; a better known opposition in QPR, the fact that everybody thinks they are all workers from a car factory, and that one of their players is about to marry the Manager's daughter), so if anybody can think of a good "angle" to publicise Runcorn's game, then please let us know.

Runcorn narrowly missed out on having the replay televised on Sky. It went down to the wire. Unfortunately, that honour, along with the £100,000 for each team has gone to Burton Albion v Oldham, with Nigel Clough's outfit seeming to be a more interesting proposition than Runcorn FC Halton.

Despite the lack of TV coverage, the club has already managed to secure Ball, and Man of the Match Sponsors, and at least one of the executive boxes has been booked, and this was within just a couple of days of the match on Saturday.

With Bristol Rovers rather downbeat about their chances (see this article on their website), we have a real opportunity to generate some interest and support locally, and make it to the second round, where we would have a home fixture against Rochdale, another 3rd division team, providing a great opportunity to continue increased support.

Runcorn secured a replay with 3rd Division outfit, Bristol Rovers, after a 0-0 draw in their FA Cup tie at the Memorial Stadium in Bristol in front of 4,135 fans. Gary Lunt was booked in the 7th minute, followed by 3 of the Bristol players in the next 12 minutes. Peter Ellis was booked 7 minutes from half time.

Half time saw Liam Watson replace Matty McNeil due to a hamstring injury. David Gamble replaced Gary Lunt in the 72nd minute. Two minutes later Lee Parle was yellow carded.

Runcorn FC Halton Line up: McMillan, Parle, Lightfoot, Tomlinson, Ellis, Ness, Lunt (Gamble), Morley, Leadbetter, McNeil (Watson), Kinney. Subs: Winstanley, Baines, Gamble, McGinn, Watson.

Bristol Rovers Line up: Howie, Boxall, Plummer, Barret, Challis (Austin), Carlisle, Quinn, Astafjevs, McKeever (Bryant), Tait, Grazioli. Subs: Clarke, Bryant, Hogg, Austin, Gilroy.

The replay is due to be played on Tue 26 Nov 2002, kick-off at 7:45pm at the The Halton Stadium.

This match is now available on video from the merchandise page.

Match Report

Runcorn are now looking ahead to their FA Cup tie with Bristol Rovers on Saturday following their crushing 5-0 defeat from Vauxhall Motors. The score at half time was 2-0, but even the substitutions of Morley and Gamble for McGinn and Leadbetter respectively were unable to turn the tide.

Goals from Wes Kinney, Gary Lunt, and Dave Gamble secured a strong win over Whitby Town.

Match Report