Some football stories take a hundred years to start. Knowle FC were founded in 1926, and in all that time the men's team had never played in the FA Cup. This month, in their centenary year, they finally did.
Knowle is a community club in Solihull, and its rise has been quick. Joint manager Clive Seeley remembers the early days plainly. "When I started there were 10 fans and a dog, now we're just growing and growing," he told the BBC. Recent home games at Hampton Road have drawn around 450 supporters, and the team started this season in the United Counties League Premier Division South with three straight wins.
The FA Cup debut arrived on Saturday 8 August, at home to Darlaston Town in the extra preliminary round. Seeley, who manages the side with his nephew Matt, caught the mood of the week before kick off. "The lads are buzzing, there is a real excitement around the club," he said. "We are going in for the game confident, but respectful." A first home FA Cup tie in a hundred years was, in his words, a special occasion for the club and for Knowle.
For player-assistant manager Jack Duggan, the day carried a story of its own. In December 2016 he scored a late winner for Stourbridge against Northampton Town that put them into the third round proper. "I thought my days of playing in the FA Cup were over when I knocked it on the head at Step Three," he said.
Knowle came through the tie. Their reward is a preliminary round trip to Coleshill Town this Saturday, 22 August, against a club from the division above. Win or lose, the run has already done what cup football does best for clubs like this. It has given a community a day out, a story to tell, and a reason for a few hundred more people to find their way to Hampton Road.
Grassroots football is full of clubs quietly doing what Knowle have done. People give their evenings and weekends for decades so that one Saturday, the biggest cup competition in the world arrives on their doorstep. The centenary badge says 100 years. The queue at the turnstile says the next hundred are in good hands.
