Football: Western pair have Twin Towers within sight

Non-League notebook

WHILE Arsenal are hoping to play at Wembley for commercial reasons, twelve clubs will tomorrow try to take the more traditional route to the Twin Towers - a route where pride and dreams matter more than money. The FA Umbro Trophy reaches the quarter-final stage while the first-leg games in the FA Carlsberg Vase semi-finals also take place.

The capital will see the biggest invasion from the West Country since the Countryside march 12 days ago if the two sides from the Screwfix Direct Western League in the last four of the Vase prevail. Tiverton entertain Kidsgrove while Taunton are also at home tomorrow, to Tow Law.

Both Tiverton and Taunton could probably hold their own in the GM Vauxhall Conference but both have chosen to turn down opportunities for promotion from the Western League for geographical and economic reasons. They are the favourites to reach Wembley - but it will not be easy.

Kidsgrove, from Staffordshire, are prolific scorers. They have three players, Scott Dundas, Paul Kiely and Richard Batho, who have struck an amazing 79 goals between them in all competitions this season.

For Tow Law, the long trip from County Durham to Somerset will make a change from the road to Suffolk - they have put out Sudbury Town and Sudbury Wanderers in the last two rounds. They will hope to do enough at Taunton to keep the tie alive for the second leg tomorrow week at their Ironworks Road ground - in what one Suffolk newspaper described this week as "virtual bandit country".

In the Trophy, Barrow fans will be filling at least 13 coaches for the huge journey to Dover. The Cumbrians may even have more supporters than the home team at the Crabble ground on the Kent coast.