King’s Lynn Town go into the hat for the first round of the FA Cup on Monday night - with the prospect of a mouth-watering tie against League One or Two opposition.
The Linnets are at this stage for the first time in the ‘new’ club’s history – although as King’s Lynn they reached the first round in 2006-7 season when the beat Bishop’s Stortford before losing at home to Oldham Athletic.
Lynn got a bye into the first round after Saturday’s scheduled fourth qualifying round opponents Notts County were forced to withdraw from the competition because of a coronavirus outbreak in their squad.
The worldwide pandemic means, of course, that no Lynn fans will be allowed to watch their team’s next cup game, no matter who they are drawn against.
“Not having supporters in the ground at the moment is horrendous,” said Linnets assistant manager, former goalkeeper Paul Bastock. “When I was playing you drew on that, especially when you are having banter and at non league level you can hear every word, but even as a management team... you look at (Jurgen) Klopp, he is a different bloke in the dug-out.
“We feed off that adrenaline of getting the crowd going, especially with some of the football we play at times. You just think if there was a crowd there it would lift and drive everybody on,
So having no crowds is a big disadvantage, especially at The Walks.”
Bastock jokingly said he would like Lynn to be drawn against a Step Six side, but knows that whatever happens, the FA Cup is a bonus – the real work is keeping promoted Lynn in the National League this season.
“It is always nice to be in the FA Cup but sometimes it can be a distraction as well, but we are purely concentrating on getting everything right for our league games,” he said.
Former Linnet and Norwich City legend Grant Holt will help conduct the draw, at around 7.10pm, and which will be shown live as part of BT Sport’s live coverage of the fourth round qualifying tie between Bishop’s Stortford and St Albans City.
King’s Lynn Town will be ball number 57.
First round ties are scheduled to take place on the weekend of Saturday, November 7. Winners will pick up £22,629, compared to £36,000 last season.
BALL NUMBERS
1 Accrington Stanley
2 AFC Wimbledon
3 Barrow
4 Blackpool
5 Bolton Wanderers
6 Bradford City
7 Bristol Rovers
8 Burton Albion
9 Cambridge United
10 Carlisle United
11 Charlton Athletic
12 Cheltenham Town
13 Colchester United
14 Crawley Town
15 Crewe Alexandra
16 Doncaster Rovers
17 Exeter City
18 Fleetwood Town
19 Forest Green Rovers
20 Gillingham
21 Grimsby Town
22 Harrogate Town
23 Hull City
24 Ipswich Town
25 Leyton Orient
26 Lincoln City
27 Mansfield Town
28 Milton Keynes Dons
29 Morecambe
30 Newport County
31 Northampton Town
32 Oldham Athletic
33 Oxford United
34 Peterborough United
35 Plymouth Argyle
36 Port Vale
37 Portsmouth
38 Rochdale
39 Salford City
40 Scunthorpe United
41 Shrewsbury Town
42 Southend United
43 Stevenage
44 Sunderland
45 Swindon Town
46 Tranmere Rovers
47 Walsall
48 Wigan Athletic
49 Darlington
50 Skelmersdale United
51 Solihull Moors
52 Banbury United
53 South Shields
54 Hartlepool United
55 FC United Of Manchester
56 Brackley Town
57 King’s Lynn Town
58 Chesterfield
59 AFC Fylde
60 Marine
61 Cray Valley Paper Mills
62 Canvey Island
63 Hayes & Yeading United
64 Bromley
65 Tonbridge Angels
66 Hampton & Richmond Borough
67 Woking
68 Maldon & Tiptree
69 Dagenham & Redbridge
70 Barnet
71 Oxford City
72 Dulwich Hamlet
73 Eastleigh
74 Torquay United
75 Havant & Waterlooville
76 Boreham Wood
77 Yeovil Town
78 Bishop’s Stortford or St Albans City (Monday, 7.45pm)
79 Concord Rangers
80 Chorley
PRIZE MONEY
First round: £22,629
Second round: £34,000
Third round: £82,000
Fourth rounds: £90,000
Fifth round: £180,000
Quarter-finals: £360,000
Semi-finals: £900,000 (losers receive £450,000)
Final: £1,800,000 (losers receives £900,000)
FANS
Non-elite club v non-elite club - allowed home and away fans
Non-elite club v elite club - home fans only
Elite club v non-elite club - behind closed doors
Elite club v elite club - behind closed doors
Byes: Chorley and King’s Lynn given byes
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