Great Cup Performances

Fareham Town`s FA Trophy run in 1986/87.

Fareham gained promotion to the Southern Football League in 1979 from the Hampshire League and it`s fair to say struggled to begin with, finishing 11th in their first campaign at the higher level, and then second-from-bottom of the South Division in 1980/81.

In 1981/82 they finished fifth, good enough to go into the newly formed Premier Division as the Southern League reverted back to three divisions.

But the Hampshire outfit struggled in the Premier Division, finishes of a respectable eighth in their first season at that level were followed by 15th, 14th and 19th followed, and they were only spared relegation due to the demise of neighbours RS Southampton.

So, Trevor Parker`s side began the 1986/87 season with little expectation, other than survival as a Premier Division club.

The best Fareham had achieved in the FA Trophy before 1986/87 was a First Round replay loss to Dagenham three seasons earlier – before that they had failed to get out of the qualifying rounds.

The First Qualifying Round saw a comfortable 5-o thrashing of Isthmian League Division One side Epsom & Ewell at Cams Alders with Sandy Baird bagging a brace.

Epsom`s league rivals Walton & Hersham were next up for Fareham but this time a tricky away tie, which they scraped through 2-1, thanks to goals from Baird and defender Domenyk Newman.

Isthmian Premier Division Farnborough Town at home awaited in the Third Qualifying Round and two goals from emerging talent Paul Moody secured a 2-1 win for Parker`s side.

The First Round paired Fareham with a very tricky away trip to Western League side Saltash United.

The Cornish side were top of the table at the time and were on their way to a second league title in three seasons.

Parker`s men crossed the Tamar Bridge in good spirits but the game hung in the balance after a scoreless first half, but goals by Kevin Dawtry 3 minutes after the break and Sandy Baird from the penalty spot 9 minutes from time saw off a plucky Saltash side, whose team included midfielder Steve Thompson, who would go on to become an England semi-professional international and enjoy great success with Wycombe Wanderers, Woking and Yeovil Town as a player and with the latter as assistant manager and manager.

Fareham had now gone further than even before in the Trophy. However, their almost serene progress to the last 32 belied their poor league form, which saw them languishing near the foot of the table.

Their nemesis appeared to lay ahead of them when they were drawn away at Bromsgrove Rovers in the Second Round.

Bromsgrove were challenging for the Southern League Premier Division title and would maintain their form to the end of the season, finally finishing as runners-up, three points adrift of Fisher Athletic.

Yet, sensationally, it was the strugglers from Hampshire who showed a propensity for `putting one over` more vaunted opposition.

At half-time at Bromsgrove`s Victoria Ground, Fareham led 2-0, thanks to goals from Moody after 21 minutes and Dawtry on 43 minutes.

A Rovers fightback looked to have been extinguished when Martin Dowding made it 3-1 with less than 10 minutes remaining, but a frantic final 5 minutes saw the home side score twice to set up a replay at Cams Alders four days later. Had Fareham missed their opportunity?

The replay was a much tighter affair, remaining goalless after 90 minutes.

The one decisive goal was claimed by Paul Moody, (pictured) the hero of the Farnborough game, who struck 10 minutes into the first period of extra-time.

Moody, like Baird, had now hit four goals in the Trophy and every one of them had been significant.

So, Fareham had turned league form upside down to manoeuvre their way past a supposedly superior Bromsgrove into round three where a far sterner test now awaited them – Scarborough away!

Scarborough were contesting the leadership of the GM Vauxhall Conference with Barnet and were some forty places higher in the non-League pecking order than Fareham – this was the inhospitable destination that awaited Parker`s side in the Third Round.

Scarborough boss Neil Warnock had one of the most experienced squads in non-League football at his disposal, with such stalwarts as ex-Swindon Town midfielder Ray McHale, who made some 550 League appearances, and full-back Cec Podd, who played almost 500 times for Bradford City.

There were many others with League experienced, including Phil Walker, who made over 150 appearances for Chesterfield, Mitch Cook (ex-Darlington), Steve Richards (Hull City and Lincoln City) and Tommy Graham, who played over 200 times for Barnsley, Halifax Town and Scunthorpe.

One of the younger players, Neil Thompson, would go on to play over 200 times for Ipswich Town and is the current caretaker boss at Sheffield Wednesday.

The Yorkshire side also had a great FA Trophy tradition, three times the winners in the 1970s, surely this tie represented just one hurdle too many for little Fareham.

If there was a chink of light for Parker`s men, it was that the Conference side`s goal touch seemed to have deserted them of late – they hadn`t found the net in the fortnight leading up to the tie.

Fareham, predictably enough, had their backs to the wall for the opening half-hour at Scarborough`s Athletic Ground, as the home side made a blistering start.

Malcolm Wilkes nodded off the goalline from Paul Kendall after a quarter of an hour as Scarborough threatened to end their recent goal drought.

It was Fareham though who took a surprise lead, however, when Moody glanced a header past Kevin Blackwell after 39 minutes.

The confidence seemed to ebb out of the Conference high-fliers after that set-back.

Moody the goalscorer became Moody the provider on 53 minutes when he set up Wilkes for the second goal and a remarkable 2-0 victory.

There was no response from Scarborough; they had failed to score now in over 300 minutes of football.

Scarborough, meanwhile, had played their last Trophy game for 13 years as they would come with a great late run to snatch the Conference title from Barnet and become the first grateful recipients of automatic promotion to the Football League.

As for Neil Warnock, I wonder what became of him!

Having scaled something akin to the Matterhorn at Scarborough, Fareham had every reason to hope that lady luck might smile on them when the Fourth Round draw was made.

Instead, they were presented with an Everest to climb, as they were drawn away for the fourth round in a row, this time at Conference leaders Barnet – they just didn`t come any harder.

Fareham, preoccupied with cup football, they were also had a good run in the FA Cup, had slipped to one off the bottom of the Premier Division table.

Barry Fry`s Barnet`s team was full of talent. John Margerrison, the former Fulham midfielder, was probably their most experienced player but Robert Codner would become the subject of a big-money move to Brighton & Hove Albion in 1988, whilst Keith Alexander moved to Grimsby Town at about the same time.

One key figure who would be missing, however, was 24-goal top scorer Nicky Evans, who had sustained a chest muscle injury and was sidelined.

Fry was certainly taking the Fareham threat seriously as he travelled up to the Midlands a few days before the quarter-final to see the Trophy upstarts gain a 2-0 victory at Dudley Town. But whatever lessons were learned went unheeded at Underhill.

Fareham goalkeeper Paul Grant did as much as anyone to break Barnet`s hearts. Twice he pushed Dave Sansom headers against a post, once in each half. A Keith Alexander effort was cleared off the line by centre-back Andy Bye (pictured) and Grant again came to the visitors` rescue with an acrobatic save from Eddie Stein in the last minute.

The only goal of the game was scored in the 16th minute when Bye was left unmarked at a Sandy Baird corner and he beat Barnet keeper Steve Humphries with a powerful header.

Trevor Parker`s plan to crowd Barnet in midfield and get among their back four had quickly paid off as they frustrated a lacklustre Underhill side.

Barnet played as if a semi-final place was a formality and paid the penalty and Fareham had now accounted for the Conference`s top two in a remarkable apogee of giant-killing.

Given their luck in the competition, it was inevitable that Fareham would draw the one remaining Conference side, Kidderminster Harriers, in the Semi-Final, requiring them to lock horns with opposition from the top of the non-League Pyramid for the third round in a row.

Fareham`s promotion-chasing league rivals Dartford and Northern Premier League side Burton Albion were the other semi-finalists.

The Kidderminster side, now installed as firm Trophy favourites at the Bookmakers, had a particularly potent forward line of Kim Casey, Paul Davies and Mick Tuohy and several England semi-pro internationals, including Casey and Davies, ex-Everton keeper Jim Arnold and former Wolves defender Colin Brazier, while another former Toffee, John Barton, was at right back.

Kidderminster`s biggest crowd of the season – 3,354 – turned up expecting to see their side take a significant stride towards Wembley.

Whilst Fareham were in a false position in the lower reaches of the Southern League, surely they couldn`t be expected to raise their game yet again?

The Aggborough crowd were given an insight into how Fareham had travelled this far, however.

On a heavy pitch drenched from non-stop rain the day before, Fareham fought out a 0-0 draw.

Defender Clive Huxford and forward Richie Paskins were always in the thick of the action for the visitors and now, amazingly, they were possibly just 90 minutes away from a Wembley final, but it was recognised that Kidderminster`s best displays in the Trophy had come away from home, so there was still everything to play for.

The second leg of the semi-final was staged at The Dell, home of Southampton, and attracted a record crowd for a Fareham `home` game of 6,035 – the biggest attendance for a Trophy semi-final for some considerable time.

The fate of the tie still lay in the balance at half-time when there was no score, but second half goals from Paul Davies on 49 minutes and Adrian O`Dowd 3 minutes from the end finally put paid to Fareham.

Graham Allner`s Harriers side went on to win the Trophy, beating Burton Albion in a replayed final – the first of four finals they would go on to contest.

Buoyed perhaps by their cup performances – Fareham also reached the First Round of the FA Cup where they lost 7-2 at Bournemouth – they improved in the league to finally finish 14th out of 22 teams.

After their giant-killing performances, it was almost an injustice that Fareham were denied the opportunity to play at Wembley.

Their achievement in disposing of the Conference`s top two – both away from home – ranks high in FA Trophy folklore and although there have been few Trophy giant-killers, Fareham are certainly one of them.

Sadly, the exhilarating Trophy run did not herald a new dawn for Fareham, as they were relegated to the Southern Division just two seasons later.

The Trophy run highlighted the talents of some of the Fareham squad, most notably striker Paul Moody, who left after relegation to stay in the Southern Premier Division with Waterlooville.

Then in August 1991, at the age of 24, he was handed his professional chances with neighbouring Southampton, where he made a dozen first team appearances as well as a spell on loan at Reading, where he scored his first League goal in his 5 matches at Elm Park.

After another loan spell with Oxford United in February 1994, the tall, powerfully built forward joined on a more permanent deal from Southampton for £60,000 and became a cult hero.

Scorer of a wonder goal at Cardiff, Moody netted four hat tricks in his time at the club before leaving for Fulham in 1997.

He then played for Millwall before returning to the U's for a swansong in 2001, adding 13 more goals in 35 games to take his tally for the club to 155 games and 63 goals.

In the summer of 2002, Moody signed for ambitious Aldershot Town, then in the Isthmian League, but became rather disillusioned with the game, and after a short time with then-Wessex League side Gosport Borough, he hung up his boots in 2003.

Another hero of the Trophy run, centre-back Andy Bye, moved to enjoy success with Farnborough Town, Yeovil Town and Bashley and went into management with the likes of New Milton Town in the Wessex League.

The man who masterminded the run, manager Trevor Parker (pictured), was a great character.

Having achieved Southampton FA success with Millbrook & Maybush, Parker spent six successful years with Totton before spells with Fareham and Basingstoke Town.

He swapped Basingstoke for triple Wessex League champions Bashley in April 1989 and worked wonders at the New Forest club, guiding them to the old South Division title at the first attempt having taken a number of his former Fareham players with him, such as Sandy Baird, Domenyk Newman and Richie Paskins.

That took them into the Premier Division where the village club rubbed shoulders with the likes of Worcester City, Burton Albion, Poole Town, Dartford and Dover Athletic.

Parker went on to manage Poole and in 1999 became manager of Eastleigh, who were in the Wessex League at the time, linking up with then chairman Roger Sherwood, his old Millbrook school friend.

And he returned to Wembley in 2000 to lead Eastleigh Social Club in the final of the Carlsberg Pub Cup.

He sadly passed away in January 2019.