FA Vase semi-final: Corsham Town 90 minutes away from Wembley

When Corsham Town players step out onto the pitch at their Southbank ground on Saturday for their FA Vase semi-final almost 2,000 fans will be cheering them on. It's some step up from their usual crowds of about 150.

Out of 586 non-league sides who entered the competition this season, Corsham have made it to the final four.

They host Ascot United FC knowing that whoever wins can claim one of the ultimate prizes in English football - a match at Wembley Stadium and the chance for a piece of silverware.

For club director Joe Barker, the prospect is something that is keeping him up at night.

"I'm dreaming about it, I wake up probably twice a night thinking about it," he told BBC Points West.

"It's on my mind all the time. At the start of the season you'd never believe you get a chance to play at Wembley and now we're 90 minutes away from doing it. It's just an amazing thing and fingers crossed we can do the job."

Corsham are in the semi-finals of the competition - contested by teams from the English ninth tier down - for the first time.

They beat Sussex side Peacehaven and Telscombe 3-2 on penalties to secure their place in the last four and earn a home tie against Berkshire's Ascot.

"It's massive, biggest game in the club's history by a country mile," Barker continued. "Big game for the town, for the people, for the players, everybody involved with the club it's massive, can't really put it into words. But very very exciting times for everybody."

The club run by the community

Corsham, a club with roots dating back to 1884, have been involved in big games before.

In the 1950s they faced local rivals Chippenham Town in an FA Cup preliminary round game and drew a crowd of 1,200. Another FA Cup tie against Newport County in 2004 saw 550 people attend.

Nothing will compare to the number expected this time around though.

"All the volunteers that go into making a little non-league football club tick over week-in week-out year-on-year, it's incredible really," said John Cuthbertson, who played for Corsham in the 1970s and is now the club photographer and historian.

"We need some of the younger blood coming along and Saturday's semi-final, with a huge crowd expected for obvious reasons, hopefully that will entice some other people to besides just watching on that day get involved for the future as well.

"That would be great for the club. We do pride ourselves on being a community club."

Like most teams lower down the English Football League pyramid where football is not the players' full-time job, Corsham has a squad made up of barbers, labourers and mortgage advisors among others.

Striker Ryan Bath, who scored Corsham's opening goal in the quarter-final, is an electrician by day and has been working on a new-build property around training in the days before the match.

"It's a hobby at the end of the day," Bath said.

"We all work hard during the week and getting to Wembley, or these big games, do make the training, the Tuesday night games, all worth it."

Bricklayer, club captain and centre-back Mark Cooper, from neighbouring Melksham, agreed that matches don't get much bigger than the semi-final.

"We've got to give it our all and see where we go. We realise we've made history coming this far and we've done ourselves proud so we'll give it our all and hopefully have enough to get over the line," Cooper said.

Corsham are on a run of six games unbeaten in the FA Vase, even though they have had to rely on a penalty shootout to go through three times.

Against Ascot they'll be stepping out in their specially made, and lucky, gold and white kit, as opposed to their usual red and white strip.

Making it to Wembley would be the pinnacle but it has already been a successful few seasons for Corsham. They won promotion to the Hellenic League Premier Division at the end of the 2020-21 campaign and are fourth in the table, pushing for a play-off place to the Southern League next season.

"It's fantastic everyone working behind the scenes trying to drive the club forward. Very exciting times and more exciting times to come, we hope," said Micky Baggs, club director and also father of team manager Kieran.

"The semi-final is all that has been on people in Corsham's lips the last few weeks and for a small, volunteer-run club, seeing their ground packed with people will bring a sense of pride whatever the result."

"Everybody's talking about it, it's the talk of the town as they say," Barker added.

"Rows of people at Corsham Town, who'd have thought it?"

Additional reporting by Damian Derrick.