And so we march on to the 4^th Round and yet another trip to the Wham Stadium only 4 days after the Tuesday evening triumph over Borehamwood. With the (once) mighty Leeds United being the visitors the game was being televised and so a 12.30 kick-off meant a very early start. Based on the Tuesday night’s journey with several M1 delays, we made a precautionary 07.30 departure, only to have a trouble-free whizz up the M6 arriving to an empty car park at 10.30; not even Jim the attendant had turned up yet – but we donated a tenner to the honesty bucket all the same!

Steve had suggested we kill an hour by seeing the sights of Accrington town centre but having been there, my wry smile said it all and we headed instead to the merch shop and thankfully the excellent Coley’s clubhouse was already open.

But being barely mid-morning, do we go for coffee or the bar?

As the ground started filling to what was a capacity of 5,200, the atmosphere grew thanks to the 2,600 noisy travelling Leeds support. For the previous two visits to the Wham, the visitor end terrace was unused as the Barnet and then Borehamwood fans were easily accommodated in the away seats, so it was great to see the terracing jam-packed.

From the kick-off, it was Accy who was on the front foot with seven good attacking moves with near chances in the first 20 minutes. The tactic to attempt the early goal seemed obvious and nearly came off with McConville having an on-target effort saved, Whalley’s shot being blocked and the promising Tommy Leigh and Pressley looking dangerous.

But with almost the first decent Leeds surge forward, the first goal came on 23 minutes with a superb strike from Harrison giving warning of the gulf in class and perhaps what was to come.  Stanley did, though, hold on to just 0-1 down at half-time.

We had the well-reported tasty pie pre-match as brunch and so the clubhouse 15 minutes was more for watching the Sky match previews on the multi-screens. But also on reading the match programme, noted that the Leeds player Georginio Rutter who had caught the eye in the first 45 minutes, was Leeds’s record signing only two weeks ago – £35M Frenchman from the German club Hoffenheim. I couldn’t help wondering what was on his mind making a debut at Accrington Stanley after leaving the Bundesliga!

The second half started as a good cup tie should and the longer the half went, there was always the chance of the big upset until 66 minutes, Bamford laying on the assist for Junior Firpo to fire Leeds further ahead, and then just 2 minutes later it was all over with a cool finish from Sinsterra.

With nothing to lose, Stanley brought on 4 subs with 10 minutes left and within a minute, the young Adkeyoya scored in front of the Stanley terrace end, his first for the club, to make it an interesting 3-1 with 9 minutes plus added time remaining. Shortly after that, Adkeyoya headed just over, which raised the excitement level and noise all the way to the finish.

That was the end of the road for our time with Stanley, who now need to fight the remainder of the season to stay in League 1 and we wish them well; great little football club and we hope to re-visit one day.

So, we immediately turn our support to Leeds, which for the Manchester Utd fans amongst us is no easy task, but the rules of our project are the rules and so we eagerly await the 5^th Round draw on Monday…. Or as one Leeds fan we passed outside the Wham put it..” we now just need someone s**t at home in’t next round”