Often in sport you hear the term ‘boys against men’ but in the third round proper of the Buildbase FA Vase this Saturday that is quite literally the case.
Wiltshire’s Bradford Town will play host to Team Solent FC, a club founded in 2005 and largely made up of students studying at Southampton Solent University.
The club are relatively new but are already making waves in the Buildbase FA Vase following an excellent run last year that saw them reach the last 16 of the competition – eventually losing to South Shields who went on to lift the trophy.
Solent have started well again this season, beating Tavistock Town 2-0 a few weeks ago, and are hungry for more success.“We probably have an average of 20 because they’re university students, so a lot of our players come to the university then they graduate after three years,” said club chairman Bill Moore.
“We’re a young side and inexperienced so it’ll be difficult against Bradford Town on that basis alone.
“Last season we got to the quarter-finals and we played against South Shields and they were very experienced.
“The side that we had last year did contain a number of third years who’d been with us a long time – there was about five or six of those who’ve now graduated and left, so we’ve got a new intake who’re coming into the team this year.
“We played against Tavistock a few weeks back and we beat them, but it was very much a backs to the wall performance and we spent a lot of time defending - although we did defend very well and then we took our chances when they came.”
The club competes in the Wessex League Premier Division and obviously with a different player base to most football clubs across the country they have a different set of challenges.
Solent insist that the primary role of the club is for student and footballing development, rather than moving up the league system, and it turns out that that may prove tricky regardless.
“Our chances of getting promoted are pretty remote because we always have a bad start to the season, the basis of that is that all the students are away and can’t get back!” Moore added.
“As a consequence we’re always putting different teams out and we’re usually about 12 or 13 games into the season before we get anything like a squad that’s capable of competing.
“The top four or five are always running away by then and it’s always too big a gap for us to catch up with!”
Buildbase FA Vase history
Last season was by far the best performance in the Buildbase FA Vase for Team Solent, they reached the fifth round proper after having only previously reached the first round proper.
Bradford Town’s best ever run is also to the fifth round proper, in 2014-15, where they lost to Highworth Town 2-0.
Did you know?
Bradford Town had floodlights installed at their ground, the Bradford on Avon Sports and Social Club, which were inaugurated by former Bristol City, Bristol Rovers and Crewe Alexandra goalkeeper Steve Phillips.
The prize
The winner of Saturday’s game will earn £1,125 and a place in the fourth round proper.
