Wells City are the visitors on Saturday in the Preliminary Round of this season’s FA Cup.

Bideford vs Wells City
FA Cup Preliminary Round
Saturday 19th August 2017
3:00pm kick off
Sports Ground, Bideford

A Brief History of Wells City
Originally founded in 1890 Wells City didn’t join Western League Division Two until 1929. Wells were crowned Western League Champions in 1949/50 but were relegated back to Division Two in 1957 and three years later were forced to pull out of the league. City played their football in the Somerset Senior League between 1960 and 2008 bouncing back and forth between the Premier Division and Division One. After finishing as runners-up in 2007/08 Wells re-joined the Western League and in just their second season back at that level won the Division One title in 2009/10. Wells were promoted to the Premier Division but were relegated back to Division One in 2013. However, City bounced back by finishing 2nd in 2015/16 and returning to the Premier Division. In 2016/17 they finished in 15th position. Wells’ best performance in the FA Cup came in 1954/55 when they reached the 4th Qualifying Round before going out to Newport (IOW).

Wells City
Web: http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/wellscityfootballclub
Twitter: @CityWellsFC

Form Guide
Wells City progressed to the FA Cup Preliminary Round with a 2-1 home win over Cribbs. Since then they’ve had a mixed start to their league season with a loss to Odd Down, a draw with Hengrove Athletic and a win on Tuesday night against Wellington.

Wells City’s last six (LWWLDW)
25/07/17 Wells City 0 Bristol Manor Farm 5 (Friendly)
01/08/17 Wells City 3 Winscombe 1 (Friendly)
05/08/17 Wells City 2 Cribbs 1 (FA Cup EPR)
08/08/17 Odd Down 3 Wells City 0 (League)
12/08/17 Wells City 2 Hengrove Athletic 2 (League)
15/08/17 Wells City 2 Wellington 1 (League)

Bideford have had a good start to the season with back to back 1-0 wins over Didcot Town and Yate Town. The Robins will be hoping for a third straight win on Saturday to hopefully lead to a long overdue good run in the FA Cup.

Bideford's last six (WWWWWW)
25/07/17 Buckland Athletic 0 Bideford 1 (Friendly)
28/07/17 Bideford 2 Bodmin Town 0 (Friendly)
31/07/17 Dorchester Town 1 Bideford 2 (Friendly)
04/08/17 Bideford 3 Appledore 0 (Friendly)
12/08/17 Bideford 1 Didcot Town 0 (League)
15/08/17 Yate Town 0 Bideford 1 (League)

Previous meetings:
1949/50 Bideford 2 Wells City 2 (FA Cup Q2)
1949/50 Wells City 2 Bideford 3 (FA Cup Q2 replay)

Bideford and Wells City have met before in the FA Cup, way back in 1949/50 when The Robins progressed to the 3rd Qualifying Round after a replay. The two sides have also met in the Western League between the years 1952-1957.

FA Cup rounds:
Extra Preliminary Round – Western League & SW Peninsula enter
Preliminary Round – Southern League Div 1 enter
1st Qualifying Round – Southern League Premier enter
2nd Qualifying Round
3rd Qualifying Round
4th Qualifying Round – National League Premier enter
1st Round – League 1 & League 2 enter
2nd Round
3rd Round – Premier League & Championship enter
4th Round
5th Round
Quarter Finals
Semi Finals
Final