Pic: Bishop Auckland FC
BISHOP AUCKLAND’S Heritage Park home has memories from their rich history permanently on display – now boss Steve Riley has urged the Class of 2016-17 to write themselves into the annals too.
With ten FA Amateur Cup wins, as well as 19 Northern League championships, the Bishops are a Non-League club steeped in tradition and glory. They have FA Cup form too.
Their record attendance is 17,000 from when they played Coventry City in the second round in 1952, while three years later they had their best ever run to the fourth round and a clash with York City.
Those days may well be in the distant past, but this year’s run has got the north east market town up for the cup again.
Farsley Celtic were the third Evo-Stik Northern Premier League team to fall to the Step 5 outfit, and up next is a trip to National League North Stockport County.
And manager Riley wants to add another chapter to their remarkable story.
“It’s been quite a while since Bishops progressed quite far in the FA Cup so the club has been gripped by it again,” he told The NLP.
“We’ve played some tough opposition already and put some top performances in. It’s been thoroughly deserved.
“Bishops have got a great history in the past and quite a few of the older supporters who still come to watch remember those days. It’s nice for them that we’ve got a big tie to look forward to.
“Inside the ground and the bar area there are pictures of all the past cup winning teams from the Amateur Cup days when they were winning it regularly, and the same in the directors’ suite.
“It’s a huge club in the north east and, in my opinion, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, tradition wise.
“The task is to try and get them back to those former glories, which isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a long road and hopefully we’re on the right path.
“The boys now can write their own little bit of history by getting to the first round and go down in the club’s history for years to come. It’s theirs to grasp, but there’s a lot of hard work, and maybe a little bit of luck, needed to do that.”
It’s not the first time the Bishops have met Stockport County in the FA Cup – the Hatters came out on top of the second round clash in 1960 with a 2-0 win.
Riley knows the former Football League side, who beat league rivals Salford City to reach this round, will be a tough nut to crack – but he sees no reason not to dream.
“Up until this round we’ve been putting a bit of pressure on ourselves to get to this point,” Riley said. “We know Stockport is a difficult task so it’s time we took that pressure off. If we play to our maximum then a positive result is on the cards. It’s not beyond us to get a result.”
