Finchampstead set down a marker in virtual County FA Cup

Elliot Thompson in goal for Finchampstead. Photo: Andrew Batt.
Elliot Thompson in goal for Finchampstead. Photo: Andrew Batt.

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I promised myself I wouldn’t write up stories about the virtual football action going on, on Twitter at the moment, not least the competition run by Football in Berkshire as I thought it best to try and keep ‘fiction’ and ‘reality’ separate.

I know I’ve been posting the virtual cup fixtures on here, but I didn’t think I’d be writing about one of the ‘matches’.

That was before Finchampstead of the Thames Valley Premier League blew us away in the virtual cup tie on Tuesday night.

First of all, let me explain if you are new to this, we’ve been running Virtual County Cup on our Twitter page over the last few weeks of lock down, to keep mostly ourselves amused. It works on the basis of two teams drawn against each other (we did proper live draws for the group stage and now the knockout ties) and then play a virtual match in the form of a Twitter poll over 90 minutes where the team with the most votes takes the three points.

Related: Ahead of the virtual clash, here’s what happened the last time Maidenhead United and Maidenhead Town met in reality

Berks County’s Tommy Nower. Photo supplied by Berks County FC.

If it all sounds a bit ‘nonsense’, we fully agree with you, but wait until you get the final 10 minutes of a poll, your club needing a swing of just a few votes and the following frantic sharing of the event to WhatsApp, Facebook and anyone that will listen, you’ll get that familiar adrenaline rush.

Last night, Finchampstead went into their knockout match with Berks County, arguably as underdogs. Prior to Tuesday nights meeting, the Swords had been involved in the most voted on match (total votes: 538) with Binfield in the group stage where the poll finished 276 – 262 in favour of the Moles. County also had the third-highest cumulative number of votes for them in the group stage (729) of three matches while Finch amassed 512.

So for sky blue and white stripes of Finchampstead to gain 407 votes of a total 737 cast in one game really makes you sit up and take notice, perhaps the Finches could go all the way? 407 is certainly the highest number of votes any team has received in a single match so far – and we’ve had 108 of them!

The top five cumulative vote scorers in the group stage were:

  • Bracknell Rangers 737
  • Binfield 731
  • Berks County 729
  • Old Windsor 672
  • Caversham United 585

Most votes cast for a club finishing in third place and in the Junior Cup: William Twigg – 454

Most votes cast for a club finishing in fourth place and not qualifying: Ascot United – 424

Wednesday nights voting in the Berkshire Virtual County FA Cup kicks off at 7:45pm on the @fiberkshire Twitter account – give it a follow! You can also follow the action on the hashtag #BVCFAC2020.

Football in Berkshire has a Breaking News WhatsApp Channel where we’ll send you updates on all the latest football news from the Royal County. You can join Breaking Berkshire Football News by clicking here

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