My Non League Day 2015

It was 10 years ago that I rediscovered Non League again after many years and one of the joys since it's inception in 2010 has been Non League day that I wrote about last week.

So this year it was down to Sporting Khalsa and the added bonus of it being an FA Cup 3rd qualifying round between Step 5 Midland League Khalsa and Step 4 NPL Northern League Spalding United, having beaten a step 4 side in the previous round Khalsa had every reason to feel confident.

This was my 4th visit to the Asprey Arena this season and I have to say it is one of the friendliest places to visit and you are always assured of a warm welcome,in addition to the Khalsa guys it was also good to meet up with fellow Non League aficionados Garry,Martin and Roger,in addition it was good to meet for the second time Paul Smithson and his fellow Windsor FC fans who are travelling all over the country following the FA Cup from round to round, true Non League fans

And so to the match and an immediate shock for Khalsa as Joe Moreman cut in from the left and fired home although the usually highly impressive Khalsa keeper James Pemberton may feel he could have got more on it

The rest of the game was finely balanced with neither side creating any clear cut chances but as the second half wore on Khalsa began to dominate and just when it looked like time had run out Marvin Nisbett   was brought down as he attempted to round the Spalding keeper and Khalsa had a penalty,should keeper Michael Duggan have been sent off rather than cautioned is open to debate However I personally wont criticise the ref for this because he had a superb game hardly getting a thing wrong and handling the couple of flashpoints really well

With leading scorer Craig Bannister having been substituted it fell to Dave Meese to secure the replay they so richly deserved and he was unerring from 12 yards

So both sides will be in the hat for Monday's draw as the big boys of the National League Premier enter the competition and I wouldn't like to call the result of the replay although Spalding with home advantage should start as favourites.

I'll finish on a real positive,Khalsa have never been the best supported club in the area but yesterday a record crowd for the Asprey Arena of over 400 watched the match,yes some of those will have been fans of Wolves,Blues the Baggies etc there because of the Non League Day publicity and hopefully they will return on days their own teams are playing away but i think there were others there who have no other affiliation,hopefully they will return and become regulars