WHO said the FA Cup has lost its magic? As far as our local non-League clubs are concerned, the famous old competition doesn't just provide us with the chance to raise our profiles but it can also become something of a free meal ticket as well.

So that's why I was delighted to see Great Harwood triumph in their FA Cup First Qualifying Round replay with Crook Town last week.

I'm sure the £7,500 prize money will make the chairman Mr Bill Holden very happy indeed!

The next round will see Accrington Stanley enter the competition, with Billingham Town the visitors to the Crown Ground.

Billingham are one of the top clubs in the Northern League and I am sure they will make things very difficult for us.

But, although our number one priority is to get out of the UniBond League, we cannot afford to look on the FA Cup as just a distraction.

The prize money up for grabs these days is a great incentive because a few wins can almost pay the club's expenses for the whole year! Saturday's winners will receive a cheque for £7,500 again, and the round after that is worth £10,000 so let's hope both us and Harwood are laughing all the way to the bank.

It's also great to see another of my former clubs doing well with Clitheroe currently riding high in the North West Counties League.

I spent four happy and successful years there, winning the third, second and first divisions of the North West Counties in successive seasons.

We were also successful in the Lancashire Cup, beating Barrow who were then in the Gola League which is now the Conference.

Incidentally, Barrow's assistant manager at that time was a certain Brian Kidd.

The manager at Clitheroe is Lee Sculpher, who has played for me at both Harwood and Stanley.

He is doing a great job and I hope they achieve their goal of promotion to the UniBond League.

The groundsman down at Clitheroe, Keith Lord, is also a good friend of mine -- as well as being one of the biggest characters in the game -- and I know it would make him very happy to see the club promoted.

During my four years there the chairman Cyril Whitside was very helpful and always backed me on football matters.

We were lucky for at that time we had the best players in the area: Martin Eatough, Steve Mullen, John Taylor and David Prees. The prize for winning the third division was just £60, for taking the second division championship we got £80 and for winning the League we received just £120! We were lucky that the local players played for the love of the game, players like Denis Underwood, the Whitside brothers and one of my heroes Eric Kinder, who used to pay me to play!

I have fond memories of Clitheroe, and when John Alty invited me to join Stanley at the end of my fourth season it took a lot of persuasion from the Clitheroe chairman Cyril Whiteside for me to take the job.

I stayed in Blackpool last week for a short break with my wife, and treated her by taking her to watch Darwen play Blackpool Mechanics last Wednesday.

I was very impressed with Darwen's young players and I am sure they will be up near the top of their division come the end of the season.