The first game we played on this day is also the biggest victory. Vulcan were on the receiving end of a 9-0 drubbing in 1900, with the Russell brothers Ted and Arthur contributing seven of the goals between them.
That perhaps used up our quota of goals, as the next three fixtures only produced two goals – 1-0 and 0-0 against Reading in 1906 and 1910, then a 1-0 victory over Metrogas in 1923.
The 1932 3-1 win over Walthamstow Avenue in the South Essex Charity Cup is probably part of a record for the longest time between two rounds in the same competition (in non-pandemic times at least). We’d have to wait until 24 April to play the semi-final, losing 2-0 to Dagenham Town.
The FA have done away with extra time in the early rounds of this year’s cup competitions, but those 30 minutes can sometimes be the most rewarding. In 1998 we played out a turgid 90 minutes in the Isthmian League Cup at Aylesbury, only for the game to come to life in the extra 30. Billy Cove looked suspiciously offside when putting us ahead on 103, then Billy Read made it two from the spot on 104.
Cove got his second on 109, and had a chance for a hattrick before the break when Sid Nelson was brought down in the box for the second time. Cove saw his penalty saved, but made amends after 117 minutes by heading in a cross for 4-0. Aylesbury scored a consolation on 119 to ruin the clean sheet.
The 8th of September has provided a couple of huge FA Cup wins for the club in recent years. In 2012, we travelled to Southern League Premier Division side Hemel Hempsted, where we were huge underdogs. It looked like a long afternoon was in store when Hemel went 1-0 up early, but goals from Joel Palmer, and Corey Whitely put us 2-1 up just after half time.
Hemel levelled, but Whitely and Manu Dagher were giving the home defence a torrid time on either wing, and both scored in the final 20 minutes to make it 4-2. Chris Taylor put the icing on the cake in injury time with a long-range effort to record a famous 5-2 victory.
And just last year, Stow upset the odds again, beating Aylesbury United 3-0 on a sunny Sunday at Chesham. Danny McCullock, Billy Jones and Samrai Gebrai were on the scoresheet that afternoon (pictured below).
