After a rather one sided cup final on Saturday it's commiserations to Aston Villa but a huge congratulations to my final glory hunt team Arsenal on winning the the oldest cup competition in the world for a record 12th time.
It has been a pretty good season all and all for the Gunners not only did they retain the trophy they won against Hull City last May but yet again they managed to qualify for the champions league yet again, with a final position of 3rd in the Premier league.
Enough now about the big boys. It is time to turn our attention to the smaller clubs that started their Fa cup journey way back in August.
Morpeth Town AFC
The Highwaymen may not of had a great season in the Fa cup as they fell at the first hurdle, however they faired much better in their league. Morpeth finished the season in the EBAC Northern league division 1 in a respectable 8th place, with a final points tally of 70 points.
Michael Chilton finished as they clubs top scorer with 31 goals for the season.
The Highwaymen also finished runners up to cup giant killers Blyth Spartans in the Northumberland Senior cup final. After an apparently close game Morpeth were narrowly defeated 2-0 by the Spartans.
Dunston UTS
Dunston UTS were conquerors of Morpeth Town in the extra pre-lim round. The Fed as they are known got as far as the 2nd qualifying round where they lost out to Spennymoor Town. They were victorious against Durham City and Marske United in the earlier rounds before succumbing to a very good Moors side.
The Fed's highest scorer was Andrew Bulford who managed to net 18 times this term. It looked for a long time as though Scott Fenwick would be their top marksman but a return of 7 goals in just 12 appearances sparked interest from bigger clubs and Fenwick was signed by League 2 team Hartlepool in November last year.
Dunston finished the season 6th in the Northern Premier League Division 1, 2 places and 6 points above Morpeth. The Fed got to the last 16 of the Fa Vase and and manged a semi final of the Northern league cup.
Spennymoor Town
Spennymoor Town were probably the most unluckiest team I followed in the cup this year, it was only an injury time equaliser that kept AFC Telford in the competition and in the replay it was Telford who progressed at Town's expense.
It was a season of mostly disappointment for the Moors as they just missed out on the play off final after narrowly losing out 3-2 to Darlington 1883 after leading 2-1. Darlington eventually won the final and were promoted after beating Bamber Bridge 2-0.
Michael Roberts and Liam Henderson lead the way in the scoring charts as the Moors finished 5th in the league with 77 points on the board. The highlight of the season has to be their home win over Clitheroe in March when they strolled out 8-3 winners.
AFC Telford United
The Bucks overcome Spennymoor and then Basingstoke to reach the 2nd round of the Fa Cup before they were finally beaten by highest ranked team in the competition Bristol City. The Fa cup run was really the only bright spot in what turned out to be a pretty disappointing season, which ultimately ended in relegation.
Telford ended the season 23rd in the Conference with 36 points 9 points from safety. The Bucks may well take hope into next season as their end of season form wasn't too bad, but unfortunately for them and their supporters it was too little too late. Good luck to them next year and hopefully with a few additions they could up the top challenging and who knows maybe they can get back to the Conference at the first attempt.
Bristol City
Bristol City have had the most successful season out of all the glory hunt teams I have followed. To be fair they had a fantastic season by anybody's standards.
They only reached the fourth round in this competition where they were put out by West Ham after a late goal by Diafro Sakho was enough to end their Fa cup adventure.
To be honest it was probably a blessing in disguise as the Robins ended up winning League 1 with an incredible 99 points, 8 points clear of their nearest rivals MK Dons.
City finished the season with an emphatic 8-2 victory over Walsall.
Not only were the Robins league champions but the also added the JPT Trophy to their ever expanding trophy cabinet after a 2-0 win again over Walsall.
With the players Steve Cotterill has at his dispossalat the club, especially in the attacking third of the field, I wouldn't be surprised to see them fighting for at least a play off place next season, maybe even challenging for promotion to the Premier League.
West Ham United
The Hammers managed to get past Everton in the 3rd round when Adrian scored the crucial spot kick in the penalty shoot out. The Irons eventually went out of the competition in the 5th round after losing against West Bromwich Albion.
West Ham finished the season in 12th position in the Premier league. In most other season this would have been seen as a successful season, however after being as high as 3rd at the turn of the year and challenging for a European slot. The second half of the season was nothing short of appalling as the Irons only managed to win 2 games in the whole of 2015. The Hammers still managed to qualify for the Europa League through the fair play league and will hope that they can replicate their impressive start from last season at the start of next season. It will however be under a new manager as Sam Allardyce left the club at the end of this term.
West Bromwich Albion
The Baggies knocked West Ham out in round 5 but were convincingly beaten themselves by local rivals Aston Villa in the very next round.
Albion finished their domestic season in 13th place in the premier league just 3 points behind West Ham in the league.
Although West Brom looked as though they would be in a relegation struggle Tony Pullis steered them away from danger and kept them safe in a decent mid table finish.
Aston Villa
Villa knocked out rivals West Brom and then amazingly beat Liverpool in the semi final after coming back from a goal behind to reach the Fa cup final.
Villa's cup form coincided with some good league form and although they lost their last two Premier league games of the season, there were 3 worse teams than the Villians and luckily for them they managed to stay up.
Tim Sherwood's appointment as manager looks to have been their saving grace and as long as he is able to build his own team next season then Villa shouldn't be in the sorry state they were in this season.
I see an improvement next year for Villa next season, though it maybe sometime off befoire they have another big day out at Wembley.
So my glory hunt is over for this season and I hope to do it all again this Summer. Hopefully I will be filming the drawing of my first glory hunt team sometime in the near future.
All that is left to say is thanks to all that have read the blog and thanks to all who have given feedback.
Up the Gunners!!!
