Football: Emley enjoying FA Cup windfall

That was the weekend that was

After the heady excitement of their FA Cup adventure, the reality of life in the UniBond League has quickly brought Emley back down to earth.

With a chilly wind whipping across their moorland ground, the Yorkshire village side slumped to a significant defeat on Saturday, beaten 2-0 at home by Winsford, in front of a Welfare Ground crowd officially recorded at just 298.

The setback, Emley's third defeat in four league matches, leaves Ronnie Glavin's team in the bottom half of the Unibond Premier table. But there were few long faces evident in the clubhouse, even when thoughts turned to West Ham's trip to Manchester City in the fourth round yesterday and what might have been had their grand day out at Upton Park gone slightly differently.

There was a simple explanation. Last week, Emley learned that their run to the third round has netted them a windfall of more than pounds 120,000.

"We were pleasantly surprised by the figure," their chairman, Peter Matthews, said, hiding his excitement behind a splendid piece of Yorkshire understatement. Matthews, who runs a plumbing business in Leeds, presided over a loss of pounds 691 in Emley's last financial year. There is more money to come, too. Having been featured on BBC's Match of the Day, Matthews is hoping to pick up a further pounds 18,750.

But he will not be allowing Glavin any lavish spending in the transfer market. Most of the cash is already earmarked for a pounds 1m project to build a community centre at the Welfare Ground, for which the club is also hoping to secure National Lottery funding.

"Money can be released for overdue ground improvements, but most of it will go towards the community centre, which will be an asset and a money- earner for years to come," he said.