It seems but five minutes ago since Crystal Palace became the latest name to be etched onto the famous cup. The 2025-26 competition gets underway on the weekend of 2nd August, with the Extra Preliminary Round. As last season I am selecting two ties, one from the Northern and one from the Southern section, with which we will start the RED and GREEN batons. The PURPLE baton will come into play in the First Qualifying Round, when Havant & Waterlooville enter the competition. The BLUE baton will make its entree in Round THREE, when Pompey will be hoping to do a little better than last season. My selected Extra Preliminary matches to follow shortly
