Get to know Marine AFC with Sam Carroll of the Liverpool Echo

Sunday's FA Cup third round tie at Marine AFC represents the first time we've faced a non-league club since beating Altrincham in the third round back in 1995 - and only our 11th non-league opponent in over 112 years as a Football League club in the FA Cup, dating back to the 1908/09 season.

What do we know about the team from Crosby, Merseyside? Well, we know they've already beaten Football League opposition in Colchester United (away, on penalties, in round one) on their way to the third round, and they've already had seven matches in this season's competition - Barnoldswick Town, Frickley Athletic, Runcorn Linnets, Nantwich Town, Chester FC, Colchester and Havant & Waterlooville. 

They are currently sixth in Northern Premier League Division One North West - which means it's the biggest gap between teams in the football pyramid for an FA Cup third round tie - and managed by former Chester boss Neil Young with an ex-Liverpool player in their ranks in David Raven, who made his debut and the first of four appearances for the Reds in a League Cup tie against us at the Lane back in December, 2004. He has a wealth of experience including over 150 games in the SPL for Inverness CT.

To find out more, we turned to Sam Carroll, sports writer for the Liverpool Echo...

The club...

Sam: "It was Marine’s 125th anniversary a couple of years ago, and they were hoping to do really well in that 2018/19 season. They’d never been relegated in those 125 years and, lo and behold, they got relegated! They used to be in the seventh tier, they are now in the eighth, in the Northern Premier League Division One North West. It doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue!"

The stadium...

Sam: "The stadium (Marine Travel Arena) is on a lovely little road in Crosby, Carlo Ancelotti (Everton manager) lives nearby, and it's five minutes from the beach. People love the area. There is one main stand behind the goal, another smaller stand to the left, the houses on the right and another mini-stand behind the other goal. It’s very small, quaint, I’m sure it won’t be like anything Spurs players have seen for a very long time!"

The reaction to the draw...

Sam: "I covered non-league football for two or three years at the Echo, and the night Marine beat Havant & Waterlooville, and the third round draw the night after, has been possibly my favourite time to work there. Everyone is so made up, the reaction to the draw has been phenomenal. Jamie Carragher has stepped in with some sponsorship. Everyone wants a piece of it. There is a row of houses which back onto the pitch and all the neighbours are buzzing! The only downside is fans can’t get in."

The manager...

Sam: "Neil Young is the manager who Jose Mourinho will come up against on Sunday. He replaced the former manager half-way through that anniversary season. At one point, they were doing really well, but they couldn’t buy a win towards the end of that season and got relegated. That left a few questions. Marine are a successful non-league club, a famous non-league club with a lot of local history in Liverpool. Neil had three-successive promotions at Chester FC, after Chester City had reformed after going into administration. He was their first manager, as such. So, he has that background. In his first season, Marine looked like they were going to get into the play-offs until COVID-19 came and the season was null and void. Now, he’s put together this FA Cup run, and he’s put together a really young team. You can’t really look too much at the league this season as there is so much going on with COVID-19, they haven’t be able to have a consistent run, but to go away and beat Colchester, currently in League Two, to beat Havant & Waterlooville (National League, North), it shows what kind of side Neil has beaten already. Okay, Spurs are 99.9% going to beat them, but to reach this point and with the financial fall out, this run could secure Marine’s future for the next 10 years, which is amazing."

The players...

Sam: "Niall Cummins is the one to watch. He has a goal in him. The season I mentioned earlier, when Marine got relegated, he got injured in February and it was well known that if he’d managed to stay fit, they would have stayed up. He’s a goal machine, what a striker. I’m sure he’s looking forward to pitting his wits against whatever Spurs defence he’s up against. Another player with Premier League experience is the former Liverpool defender David Raven, who is in his mid-30s now. You look at him and he’s this quite small, diminutive guy, but you know when someone has played at a higher level and his reading of the game, and the way he’s marshalled that defence around him has been phenomenal. He’s realistic, he knows he’s not going to get another chance like this, so what an occasion for him. There’s also a central midfielder called James Barrigan, he came through the system at Wigan (2015-18) and his profile picture on Twitter is of him and Jose Mourinho! He’s still only a young man (22) and he’s probably the one Marine fans would look to as their best young player. Ultimately, these are all lads who have full-time jobs and work Monday-Friday. I guess that’s the magic of the FA Cup."