Onto the first round proper, no glamour tie for Glynn's team, Morecambe away. (Better to be at home against them!). A goal down, the leveller came from one Ian Banks, Banger of course was a great Barnsley servant and was our Assistant Manager under Nicky Law, he slotted home a penalty and from then on "Ged" Marples kept Emley in the game. (1,496 crowd).

2,439 attended the replay, a humdinger of a match. It ended 3-3 after extra time, with Calendar and Look North cameras in attendance. Morecambe took the lead, Banks teed up Hurst for the equaliser, 1-1 after 90 minutes. Hurst made it 2-1 after 109 minutes, Morecambe's Japanese full back Takano made it 2-2 from 25 yards before, with just a minute to go, the visitors took the lead through Monk. Disaster. However sub Garry Marshall had other ideas and grabbed a penalty shoot out with a last gasp effort to make it 3-3, Chesterfield fans know what that feels like.

Chris Marples saved pen number 1, Banks scored, another Marples save, Deniol Graham made it 2-0, then it was 2-1 and Steve Nicholson restored the two penalty advantage which was then enough when Ged saved his third from four Morecambe efforts to cue a pitch invasion and start the preparation for a trip to Lincoln City.

Saturday 6th December saw 3,729 descend on Sincil Bank where Emley gained a creditable 2-2 draw, Hurst and Graham scored, they'd been 2-1 up but a period of stoppage time close on 10 minutes allowed the Imps to level. The draw the next day paired the replay winner with West Ham in London. What an incentive. The replay was switched to the McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield, 4,891 saw another 3-3 memorable 120 minutes at the snow surrounded stadium, Graham and Nicholson (2, 1 pen) scored for Emley but another late show saw Lincoln level and penalties were again the order of the day, though this time Emley were without two takers, Graham had been subbed and Banks was injured.

Nicholson made it 1-0, Marples saved from Barnett, Dean Calcutt and Glynn Hurst sandwiched a successful City effort and then it was 3-2. Paul Viner had his effort saved to make it one miss each, Paul David exchanged goals to make it 4-3, then up stepped Lincoln's ex Huddersfield (and Mansfield) man Phil Stant, he shook hands with Marples (and had a bet on the outcome, the victor was to receive beer!), Stant blasted to the top left but somehow the former Chesterfield keeper flung himself miles to scoop the ball clear and clinch the trip to the East End.

Like we experienced in 96-97, the TV World clamoured to get to Emley in the build up to their trip to the Boleyn Ground. Every National Paper sent hacks to the village with just an 1,800 population who were preparing to travel to the team sitting 8th in the Premiership. A Friday departure with The Sun on the team coach (paper, not weather), a stay at the Tower Hotel before waking to wind and rain on the Saturday morning of the match. The trip to the ground was a dream for the journalists, there was a fire in Barking which caused a hold up, Emley, of course, had two firemen in their team!

18,629 were in attendance, around 3,000 cheering on Emley (no doubt including many Barnsley fans) and they saw Paul Kitson hit the bar for the Hammers after just a couple of minutes, Lacey limped off for treatment shortly after that and whilst Emley were down to 10 men, Frank Lampard made it 1-0 with just 4 minutes played.

Paul Hartson missed a hatful of chances, Ian Banks had a free kick go close, Wilson, on for Lacey, miscued after a corner before the break, just 1-0 to the glamour boys. Emley started the second half with fire in their bellies, Banks hit wood before delivering one of a series of corners for Paul David to equalise. The Hammers home record at that time, 11 wins from 12, and Emley were level. Into the final ten minutes and a replay look on, David hacked an Abou effort off the line, before Glynn Hurst broke clear, it was 4 on 2, but his ball out to the wing was just a little too inaccurate and the chance was lost. Then, with 82 minutes on the clock, Hartson atoned for his errors, heading home a Stan Lazaridis cross and Emley's magnificent dream was over.

West Ham Manager Harry Redknapp was full of praise for Ronnie Glavin's men, Match of the Day showed the highlights of the conclusion of the run which had seen 9 matches, 23 goals scored, 14 conceded plus two penalty shoot outs, Glynn played in 7 of the games scoring 5 goals and a total of 34,018 had paid to watch little Emley live out their dream.

West Ham: Forrest, Breaker (Abou), Lazaridis, Potts, Ferdinand, Pearce, Unsworth, Lampard, Berkovic, Kitson, Hartson.

Emley: Marples, David, Lacey (Wilson) (Wood), Thompson, Jones, Calcutt (Tonks), Nicholson, Banks, Hurst, Graham, Reynolds.