WESTON UNION

How a father and son are loving a fairy-tale Cup run and dreaming of glory at Grimsby today

- BY JOHN CROSS

But Weston have huge plans for their stadium on the edge of town

WESTON-SUPER-MARE have made themselves one of this season's great FA Cup fairy-tales - at the 84th attempt.

The National League South side will take 600 fans to Grimsby and are dreaming of going one step further in their remarkable run.

Chairman Oli Bliss has finally taken the club into the third round for the first time in the club’s proud history. It has surpassed even his dad, former chairman Paul Bliss, who came within a whisker during his 39 years at the helm after reaching the second round in 2003/04 but losing to Northampton.

The father-and-son double act are enjoying the romance of the FA Cup but know it means everything to non-League clubs like theirs.

Weston-super-Mare, along with Macclesfield, of the National League North, are the lowest ranked teams left in the FA Cup and the semipro club's lineup is made up of teachers, sports coaches and labourers.

They have had some support from England star Ollie Watkins who had a loan spell at Weston-Super-Mare while a young player at Exeter and is still pals with current players Jacob Cane and Jason Pope. A signed Aston Villa shirt hangs on the wall off the clubhouse (right).

And the clubhouse is really quite something in itself. The Optima Stadium holds 3,500 fans and sits on the outskirts of the seaside town in the South West of England which is a 500-mile round trip to Grimsby.