FA Cup madness as manager sacked for going on holiday before club's historic tie

The world's oldest cup competition returns this weekend with the first round proper taking place.

As ever, there's plenty of quirky stories thrown up across the 40 ties.

This season sees the return of supporters to grounds after the competition was played largely behind closed doors for the 2020-21 campaign.

One of the non-league clubs hoping to spring a relative shock this weekend is seventh tier side Buxton.

Buxton have not played in the FA Cup proper since way back in 1962 and face a game away at York City, who are managed by Steve Watson. Watson reached the cup final in 1998 with Newcastle, losing out to Arsenal.

Which team do you think will spring the biggest shock this weekend in the FA Cup? Let us know in the comments section

Buxton are poised for their first FA Cup proper tie in almost 60 years

Despite the club building up to its biggest game for almost 60 years, preparations for the trip could not have been more hampered following the midweek dismissal of managerial duo Gary Hayward and Mark Ward.

But the reasoning behind it was quite bizarre - with Ward stating that he would miss the game due to a holiday that had been postponed a number of times.

He wrote on Twitter : "After the last 18 months of a global pandemic and loads of s**t this was the only chance we could all go.

"Unfortunately it's fallen on a big weekend for the club and I more than anyone is gutted to be missing it. However I'm still going to put my family 1st (sic)."

On the pitch the club have gone 14 games unbeaten in the Northern Premier League Premier Division and will be hoping to continue that against the Minstermen.

Steve Cunningham has since been named as the Bucks' new boss and will be hoping to at least force a replay and bring York back to the Silverlands.

Lincoln City reached the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2017 when they were a non-league side

Elsewhere in the first round, Lincoln City were once the underdogs who went all the way to the FA Cup quarter-finals whilst still a non-league side.

That famous run to the last-eight, which was five years ago, saw them finally beaten by Premier League giants Arsenal but they used the prize money and momentum from their run to aid promotion and are now a League One side.

On Saturday the shoe will be on the other foot when they face a side 99 rungs lower than them in the pyramid - the largest gap between any two sides this weekend.

Essex-based Bowers and Pitsea travel to League One Lincoln in this year's first round

Bowers and Pitsea compete in the Isthmian Premier Division and their side includes a carpenter and even a fashion designer.

Their manager Rob Small is under no illusions as to how big his side's trip to the LNER Stadium is.

"It's got the potential to reshape the whole future of the club," he told the Mail.

Indeed a first round victory is worth more than £22,000 to the winners - a huge carrot dangling in front of non-league clubs who until recently were starved of matchday income for more than 18 months.

For AFC Sudbury, they have already banked nearly five times that amount on their incredible run in this year's competition.

The eighth tier side are the only team left who started out in the preliminary round back in August.

On Friday night they welcome local rivals, League Two side Colchester United, to King's Marsh for a game being screened live on the BBC.

AFC Sudbury face local rivals Colchester, hoping to spring an FA Cup shock

The sense of occasion is not lost on Sudbury's co-manager Angelo Harrop, who can smell a cup upset in the air.

"I'm not saying we're definitely going to win the game but I think it will be closer than people think," Harrop said.

"We have to make sure we're in the game at half-time and obviously you can't roll the dice every single day. But hopefully we just have that little bit of luck."

* This season sees the coverage of games shared by the BBC and ITV, who have taken over from BT Sport.

Six of the 40 first round ties will be screened from Friday to Monday on terrestrial TV and all goals will be available to watch on-demand.