Charting Crewe Alex's dreadful FA Cup history

Everyone knows the FA Cup has long lost its lustre. 50 years ago, games drew their highest crowds. It was must see stuff. That also meant that the cup draws themselves were also big events. Everyone tuned into TV or Radios, desperate to know who their team had drawn. But nowadays, it barely registers with many.

It's a shame that so many clubs fanbases seem less and less interested as the league takes almost total dominance in their thoughts. However, for Crewe Alexandra fans, they have good reason to roll their eyes when the FA Cup comes along. The Alex over the years have had both a awful record of winning in this competition, and in getting good draws. How awful you say? Well, I'm glad you asked:

Dreadful Record

The Alex had a strong record in the early stages of this competition in the 1800s, even getting to a semi-final in 1887-88. But between then and 1925, they failed to make the third round once. Post World War II until 1988, the Alex only made the 3rd round on 7 occasions. 7. In 43 years.

Things did improve from the late 80s until 2003, with them progressing beyond their initial entry point(1st round in Leagues One and Two or the 3rd round in the Championship) in 12 out of 15 years. But since 2003 they've gone out at the first hurdle or failed to make the 3rd round in 19 of the last 21 seasons. They've only made the 3rd round twice since they dropped out of the Championship in 2006, meaning they've only won back to back rounds in the same season twice.

It's not just that they struggle to win either, it's that they've been through some humiliations as well. They've had embarrassing defeats to non-league opposition in York, Tamworth and Eastleigh. Their biggest scalps have been Bolton and Derby. 2 League One teams. I could be wrong, but I think the last time they knocked a team 2 divisions higher than them out of this competition was Chelsea in 1960-61,

There has been precious little to shout about in this competition for the Alex fans for over the years, so don't blame them when they feel a collective sense of apathy when the draws come on.

Dreadful Draw Record

However, the biggest reason I think Alex fans shrug at this competition is their frankly terrible record at drawing non-league opposition. I'm not joking either, it's horrendous.

Going back to 2000, the Alex have entered this competition 24 times and have been involved in 40 different draws. They've drawn non-league opposition 6 times, with only 5 of them being unique opponents, given they got Eastleigh twice. They haven't drawn a team lower than tier 5 since Gresley Rovers in 94-95.

Bear in mind that the probability a league club draws a non-league club in the first round is 40.5% and 25.6% in the 2nd round, the Alex, since they dropped out of the Championship in 2006, have drawn non-league opponents at a 22% rate in the first round and 12.5% in the second round. Well below the averages, at almost half the expected rate.

A Study

I decided to have a look how the Alex's draw record compared to the rest to the other clubs in the current 92. For this study, I looked at all the draws for the first and second round going back to the 2000-01 season and how often the league clubs had drawn a non-league opponent at those stages.

Now, as a disclaimer, I didn't include any teams who had less than 10 1st/2nd round entries, as their sample size was too small. I also didn't include draws in the qualifying rounds, because obviously you can only draw a non-league team at that stage. And I didn't look at the 3rd round onwards, as the chances of drawing a non-league team then are slim. That left me with 57 of the current 92 to look at.

I decided for spacing reasons to not include the full table. Instead I only listed the 11 teams with the lowest non-league draw rate.

Team	No. of 1st/2nd Round Draws	Non-League Draws(%)
Sheffield United	12	1(8%)
Crewe Alexandra	28	5(18%)
Accrington Stanley	28	5(18%)
Bradford City	31	6(19%)
Sheffield Wednesday	10	2(20%)
Barnsley	14	3(21%)
Plymouth Argyle	27	6(22%)
Tranmere Rovers	34	8(23%)
Walsall	34	8(23%)
Huddersfield	16	4(25%)
Morecambe	32	8(25%)

As you can see, the Alex, ahead of only Sheffield United, have the worst record for drawing non-league teams in the 1st and 2nd rounds. But when you consider their sample is so small and barely made the cut off, the Alex and Accrington are the teams with the worst record over a concerted period.

If you're interested, the 3 qualifying teams with the highest non-league draw rate were Brentford(54%), Fleetwood(48%) and Blackpool(48%).

Conclusion

So, next time you start discussing the FA Cup draw and you see Crewe Alex fans shrug their shoulders, you know why. And to Crewe Alex fans, next time you hear the fans of any team that isn't on the above list complain about their teams lack of non-league draws, please point them in the direction of those stats. Because whilst for some teams the idea that they don't get non-league opponents is exaggerated, for the Alex, it's a painful and dull reality.

And finally, this article sets up tonight's draw perfectly. Because if the Alex do get a non-league opponent(even if it's someone monumentally dull like Forest Green or Sutton), then I can claim this jinxed it. Or, if they do continue their long held curse by getting an EFL opponent yet again, then I can say I told you so. A win win if ever there was one. Roll on 7pm tonight.