Every extra preliminary round throws up a result that makes you sit up. This year it was SE Dons.
The club beat Lancing 6-0 away from home to mark their first-ever FA Cup appearance, with Aaron Watson scoring a hat-trick. On its own that's a decent Saturday. What lifts it into a genuinely notable story is where SE Dons have come from - they were turning out in Sunday league football as recently as two years ago. Twenty-four months on from park pitches, they've won an FA Cup tie by six goals. That's a rise that deserves more attention than it's had.
It wasn't the only heavy scoreline of the weekend either. Willand Rovers put nine past Wellington, Corby Town beat FC Peterborough 7-1, and Erith Town needed seven to see off Steyning Town in a ten-goal game. A cluster of clubs -Euxton Villa, Mulbarton Wanderers, North Greenford United, Laverstock & Ford and Barnstaple Town - all won 6-0, and Chasetown weren't far behind with six of their own against Coton Green. There was history too: Sturminster Newton United played their first FA Cup tie since 1878, losing to Portland United, though the result barely mattered next to the fact they were back in the competition after 148 years out of it.
Still, SE Dons are the ones worth keeping an eye on. They'll face Punjab United in the preliminary round next, and for a club that had nothing to do with organised league football two summers ago, that's already a story worth telling regardless of how much further the run goes.
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