Steve Jupp, BA11's Club Historian, ponders a semi-final at one of our nearest neighbours.
Frome Town hit the cup trail once again on Tuesday evening as they bid to reach the final of the Somerset Premier Cup for the first time in just over a decade.
Standing in their way on their own Winterfield Road patch are their oldest rivals Paulton Rovers who first hosted The Robins as long ago as 1904.
This is the FOURTH semi-final contested in the Danny Greaves era and the travelling faithful will be hoping it’s fourth time lucky as the previous three all ended in 2-1 home defeats, the first to Taunton Town back in 2019 followed by a couple of back-to-back battles with Bath City.
Rovers themselves have some recent pedigree in this competition, having been losing finalists to the Romans in 2023 when they held out for so long only to be undone by a barrage of late goals.
Relegated from Southern League Division One South last term, they find themselves back in the Western League for the first time since 2004 and Saturday’s comeback 3-1 win at St Austell took them up to fifth place with their last six encounters yielding three wins and three losses.
The respective paths to the last-four stage:
Paulton Rovers Frome Town
Bye First Round Brislington (a) W 4-1
Hengrove Athletic (H) W 7 – 1 Second Round Bath City (a) W 2-0
Nailsea & Tickenham (H) W 2 – 0 Quarter-Final Mendip Broadwalk (H) W 3 – 0
Historically, Winterfield Road has not been the happiest of hunting grounds for the Scarlet Runners (four wins in their last nineteen visits) but Frome fans have happy memories of their last visit some eighteen months ago when a 2-2 stalemate going into the 84th minute became a 7-2 rout, their biggest-ever victory on Paulton soil in 120 years of doing battle.
Weston-super-Mare or Clevedon Town await the winners in a Twerton Park final next month and if the sides cannot be separated after ninety minutes, a penalty shoot-out will decide.
One of the few downsides of promotion to Step Three was losing out on local derbies like this, but the draw has been kind in bringing us the 146th instalment of this keenly-contested rivalry with a cup final as the prize. Bring it on!
The latest information on pre-booked ticketing according to the Rovers is as follows:
Adult - £8.67
Concession - £6.50
Under 18s - £3.25
Under 12s - FREE
Listen to the latest episode of the Dodge The Question podcast!
Steve & Zeb chat to Harrison Richards and John Hinde before and after the 1-0 win against Hanwell Town FC.
You can also listen on Frome.FM radio every Friday at 5pm (repeated on Saturday 3pm)
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