Shortwood United v Port Vale

 

Shortwood United v Port Vale
FA CUP
7.45pm LIVE ON BT SPORT

ROMANCE OF THE CUP….

Forget your Man U’s v Arsenal’s (and, trust me, after recommending a draw yesterday I do want to forget), the romance of the FA Cup is back big time tonight for the first round match between Shortwood United and Port Vale.

BT Sport may have paid gazillions for future Champions League coverage but tonight their cameras head to Meadowbank home of Shortwood United who are the lowest ranked club left in the competition and plough their trade in the Southern League Division One South & West – a full four tiers below Port Vale.

With an average attendance of 120, the 1,300 tickets for tonight’s match sold out inside an hour. Fans began queuing at the Meadowbank at 5.30 and club chairman Pete Webb said: ‘We’ve never seen anything like it in our lives. It’s fantastic.’

Their teams includes plumbers, painters and decorators and made it this far after an against the odds win against Aldershot in a replay at the Recreation Ground.

The reward for a win tonight would be a home tie against Salisbury.

Port Vale hardly come into this in the best shape having lost 5-2 to Swindon in their last outing but should easily account for Shortwood and with a -2 start on the handicap – odds of around 15/8 make appeal.

STAR FORECAST
(stake between 0.5 and 10 points)
5 points PORT VALE (-2) at around 15/8

A GOLDEN DIET PLAN

Dubai dieters have been rewarded with gold for losing weight during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The Your Weight In Gold campaign gave away £474,000 worth of gold to about 3,000 contestants, who won one gram of gold for every kilogramme shed.

Contestants that lost more than five or 10 kg received a greater proportion of gold per kg.

Ahmad al-Sheikh, a 27-year-old Syrian architect, won the top prize of 63 grams of gold, worth £1,700, after he lost 26 kg.

“I actually registered 15 days later in the campaign and was worried at first, because I thought I lost a head start to all the other contestants,” he said.

He added that support from friends and family helped him achieve his goal.