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Football London
Football London
Sport
James Piercy

The reason Tottenham's historic FA Cup tie against Marine may have to be moved

It is the tie of the FA Cup third round - Marine vs Tottenham Hotspur.

The team from the eighth tier will take on the Premier League leaders in the third round of the historic cup competition at the start of January.

But will the Northern League side be able to play it at their home ground Rossett Park?

That is certainly the plan.

Rossett Park holds just over 3,000 fans with the potential that 2,000 could be permitted to attend under the new coronavirus guidelines, with Merseyside in Tier 2.

However, that would make social distancing impossible, with the ground able to safely hold 1,600, as confirmed by manager Neil Young.

“We can get about 1,600 in under the current restrictions, that may change obviously with the Government guidelines as we go forward," Young told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.

"We'll play at home hopefully. I presume they'll be safety standards people there involved and the police will have things to say. We'll see what happens.

"If you were to move it, you'd have to move it to another ground probably, a local ground, rather than go away from home.

“The plan is to play at Marine if we can. It's a proper cup tie, it's what the FA Cup is about. It took seven games to get here, this is our reward and they don't come much bigger."

If they were to move the match to a ground close by, they could look at Liverpool's Anfield ground, just six miles away.

The Reds were drawn away in the third round, which would leave Anfield available.

Young added: "Our ground actually only has three sides, there's houses on one side. People can [watch from bedroom windows], they'll be people in trees and everything. It's a tight little ground, a lovely little ground and it'll be very welcome to Tottenham Hotspur."

There are a full 167 places between Tottenham and Marine in the English pyramid, a record for a FA Cup third round tie, as Spurs prepare for their first match in the competition but it will be the seventh for the Northern Premier League Division One North West side.

Marine’s journey began in the first qualifying round on September 22 having gone on to take the scalps of League Two Colchester and National League South Havant & Waterloovile to set up the Spurs tie.

All third round matches will be held across the weekend of January 8-10 with Spurs game against eighth-tier Marine to be televised.

“It’s an unbelievable draw,” added Young. “We will plan as best we can. Usually with Jose’s teams, he puts pretty strong sides out. We have won seven games to get here and this is a great reward.”

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