Preview by Richard Edmondson

The very long road to Wembley begins this weekend, as Kendal travel to Ashton under Lyne to play Ashton United in the 1st qualifying round of the FA Cup. OK maybe dreams of Wembley are a bit ambitious, but you can’t help but get carried away especially with the way in which the team are playing at the moment. Theirs an air of confidence around the squad right now. They are all playing an exciting brand of football which opposing sides are finding hard to live with. On our day we can beat anybody and it seems that they are getting more good days than bad at the moment. Last season’s FA Cup campaign brings back agonising memory’s, as we were 1 round away from the 1st round proper. Too make it even harder to stomach we lost that last qualifying round by the narrowest of margins to an Altrincham side that didn’t offer much going forward other than that 1 strike. Team news: Ian Kilford was missing from Tuesdays win, not sure what was up with him, whilst Tony Hallam and Dave Standley remain absent for the weekend. However as far as I am aware there’s no fresh injuries ahead of this Saturdays match! The Opposition: Ashton United have made a fantastic start to their season, currently sitting top of the division on the back of a good 2-0 home win over Marine on Tuesday night. They are a young team, that’s full of confidence with aspirations of promotion to Blue Square north. Players to watch out for: Ashton have a variety of different players that can hurt any side in the division here are some of those players: Ian Fitzpatrick, is 28 years of age and has had a few clubs in his career he started out as a Manchester Utd Junior and has a vast amount of experience at league football. He was one of the players that helped Shrewsbury get promoted to the football league a few years ago. Fitzpatrick finished up as the top scorer for Ashton and has scored 2 so far this season. Ben Deegan is Ian Fitzpatrick’s strike partner, a former Altrincham youth and reserve player,had scored 27 goals in 12 appearances for the youth side. His record this season reads 4 goals in 7 games including one on Tuesday night when they beat Marine 2-0 at Hurst Cross. Ben Smith: A midfield player who used to play for Oldham Athletic. He is 26 years of age, labelled as a creative midfield player and has scored 3 goals in the last 3 games. Overall: An exciting match in prospect against 2 of the form teams, both play an attractive brand of football and both can score goals. Saturday’s sure to be full of excitement! Lets hope Town can progress in this season’s cup.