An FA Cup third-round tie against Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur is just about as big as it gets for Tamworth FC, who currently play in the National League — the fifth tier of English football.
But the town itself used to be a big deal. In the 8th and 9th centuries, it was the Anglo-Saxon capital of the kingdom of Mercia, the largest kingdom on the island until the Norman invasion of the 11th century. And the motte and bailey castle has stood overlooking the town ever since the Normans arrived.
Since then, the market town, situated less than 20 miles north east of Birmingham, in the county of Staffordshire, has rarely been in the news.
Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the modern police force, was the local MP. The infamous three-wheeled Reliant Robin car was manufactured on the outskirts of the town centre, while the nation’s first indoor ski centre, the Snowdome, was built there in 1994.
Will Tottenham’s season go downhill in Tamworth…? (David Jones/Getty Images)
Later in the 1990s, two Sandyback pigs — the breed Tamworth is famous for producing — went on the run after escaping the abattoir and were dubbed ‘Butch and Sundance’ by the national press. They were recaptured but given a reprieve from the bacon slicer.
But occasionally, the relative obscurity has been punctuated by the local football club. The Lambs, a nickname derived from the pub that used to stand on the corner of their ground in the centre of the town (yes, you can see the SnowDome from there), have been set deep in English football’s non-league system for most of their existence. As recently as 2023, they were playing in the seventh-tier Southern Premier League Central, before back-to-back promotions saw them return to the National League Premier for the first time in a decade this summer.
But occasionally, thanks mainly to the FA Cup, they have garnered national attention.
They held Championship side Stoke City to a goalless draw in 2006, before falling to defeat in a third-round penalty shootout. They then lost at home to Norwich City in front of a live national television audience a year later. Then in 2012, there was a trip to Goodison Park to face Everton, where the Lambs lost by a respectable score line of 2-0.
But those occasions will be small fry compared to being drawn at home to Spurs in January’s third round. It will be the biggest game in the club’s history.
The Tamworth players, who are still part-time in a league that is mostly fully professional are led by captain Jas Singh, a building surveyor by trade, but also the goalkeeper who saved two penalties in a shootout victory at Burton Albion that booked Tamworth’s place in the third round, will be facing a whole new challenge against Spurs. But so will the away side.
The Lamb during Tamworth’s FA Cup win over Huddersfield (Bradley Collyer/Getty Images)
It is extremely unlikely that Ange Postecoglou, Son Heung-min, £60million striker Dominic Solanke or World Cup winner Cristian Romero will have ever experienced anything like what awaits them on their visit to The Lamb.
For starters, it has an artificial pitch set on a slope. When it was grass, the slope from the Cross Street entrance in the top corner down to the Castle End in the opposite corner was even more pronounced, but when the club installed the all-weather surface so they could generate more revenue through the week, they did remove some of the slope… but not all.
The ground only holds 4,000, and while there are usually over 1,000 now for home games, there used to be a hardcore of just 600, but they always make a noise.
The dugouts are directly in front of The Shed, named because it was built with corrugated iron, with wooden sleepers used to build the terrace. This is where the most vociferous fans congregate, not just to get behind their team, but also to get in the ear of the visiting coach just a few feet away.
Postecoglou may not like all he hears from Tamworth’s fans (Harriet Massey/Getty Images)
Former Leicester City, Birmingham City and Blackburn Rovers midfielder Robbie Savage was given a particularly hostile reception when he took his Macclesfield Town side to Tamworth in the fourth qualifying round.
The dressing rooms are old portacabins built behind the clubhouse. Only in recent years has a roof been built above to protect the players from the elements.
The national media will also be in unfamiliar territory. Instead of the palatial press benches of the Premier League, the press bench holds about eight to 10 seats. For the Norwich game, a scaffolded temporary press bench had to be built high up over a corner of the ground that could only be accessed by a rickety ladder.
On the pitch, the Spurs players will have to contend with a direct style of play under manager Andy Peak, including the howitzer long throw of midfielder Tom Tonks, who looks to launch the ball into the penalty area from anywhere inside the opposition half. His long throw led directly to Tamworth’s winner in the first round when they dumped out League One side Huddersfield Town 1-0.
Against a packed partisan crowd inside an open, windswept ground on an artificial sloping pitch — probably on live national television — it will not be for the faint-hearted.
Postecoglu and the Tottenham players, you have been warned.
(Top photo: Harriet Massey/Getty Images)
